Kevin Bale’s TED talk “How to Combat Modern Slavery” is a reminder that slavery isn’t just an issue found in our history books but that it is an ongoing issue today. Bales talk reminded me of past stories about modern slavery I’ve heard in the past but I failed to grasp the severity of how large of an issue modern slavery is today. When hearing these stories I naively thought of them as anomalies, the grim truth is that victims of slavery can be found in just about every corner of the world. I was also appalled at how inexpensive it was to purchase a slave, that a human life could be worth so little. Thankfully the issue of modern slavery is also beginning to get more attention in the mainstream media, as we saw when director Steve Mcqueen dedicated his best picture win for 12 Years a Slave to the millions of people still enslaved today earlier this year at the Oscars.
Bale is an experienced speaker but he isn’t necessarily a great orator. I won’t argue that he gave a great and informative talk but overall I found it to be a little dry. Bale utilizes a more logical approach in appealing to the audience about modern slavery. While he does make great use of clips and a few anecdotes in his talk, his arguments rely heavily on statistics. The emotional approach is definitely present in his speech but he fails to really allow the audience to connect to the people in his stories. He introduces them, tells us a little bit of their story, and then quickly moves onto the next topic. Were only left with a superficial impression of who these people are and they seem to blend into the other various statistics offered by Bale.
The arguments made in Bales talk were adequate. The main claim made by Bale is that it is up to the global community as a whole to liberate the millions of enslaved people across the world. One of the reasons used by Bale is that slavery plays a big part in environmental issues around the world. Slaves are used in ways that harm the environment like the deforestation of the Amazon. The destruction of the environment is something that affects us all, which is why it’s in all our best interests to end slavery. Bale also backs up his argument by discussing the cost of liberation. His reasoning is that while 10.8 billion dollars sounds like a lot of money, Americans spend that same amount of money every year on more frivolous things. If we can spend 10.8 billion dollars on blue jeans or potato chips, surely we can also spend 10.8 billion dollars to free our fellow human beings from enslavement. While he makes a great point, Bale fails to fully explain to us how exactly we would liberate these people. He does mention that we wouldn’t buy them out of slavery, which begs the question of if not with money then would force be used?
The transcript of Bales speech would not translate well as a piece of writing. His overall theme is clear but it lacks the organization of a standard essay. An introduction and body paragraphs are present in the transcript but his use of clips and slides make it difficult to work as a piece of writing. There are a few choppy places in the transcript because a slide or video was not included or it wasn’t possible to include it in the transcript. Bale also failed to use effective transitions between topics in his talk. His sentence craft was strong, which is evident most in his introduction. A great example of this is “ Well if you teach, if you worship in the temple of learning, do not mock the gods, because they will take you, fill you with curiosity and desire, and drive you. Drive you with a passion to change things.” His choice of words were effective and cleverly put together.
All in all Bales talk and the ideas he shares are effective. It’s impossible to hear about the topic of modern slavery and not be moved emotionally. Mr.Bales is correct in that modern slavery is an issue that concerns us all. We live in a country where the idea that freedom is fundamental right is taught to us from a very young age and that we should always go to great lengths to protect those freedoms, so it would only be natural for us to fight for the freedom of others as well. Something we have in fact done many times before, so why not for the millions of those enslaved today?
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