Wati Longchar
The objectification of humans means treating a person or a group of people including their cultures as commodities to be sold and used. It could also mean treating human beings as an object of pleasure and enjoyment. Women, children, and even an entire family are sold for money without respect for their personality, spirituality, and dignity. I was shocked to read a story of parents forcing their minor daughter to get married to a rich fifty-year-old man due to poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic. Parents selling their daughter like a commodity! In another heart-wrenching story, Kyi and his family were forced to flee their home to escape the Myanmar military’s suppression of the Rohingya. While staying in a refugee camp, an agent offered good-paying jobs in Agra, India. Kyi thought that it was a great opportunity to rebuild their lives. However, once they arrived in Agra, they knew they had been deceived. They found themselves forced to work long hours for no wages as garbage pickers and plastic bottles collectors. Such fraud and coercion take place for want of money. The exploitation of poor people in their vulnerability. Such a cruel practice is called the commercialization of human beings.
Objectification of Body for Money
Another dark reality of tourism is the objectification of women and children as a mere instrument of sex pleasure. They are seen as mere “sex objects” for enjoyment and entertainment. This is the reason why the abuse, including trafficking of women and children, is seen everywhere. It is reported that “Human trafficking is one of the most serious human rights problems. According to a 2016 report of the International Labour Organization (ILO), 21-45 million people are currently enslaved. The numbers are shocking. Women, men, girls, and boys are being bought and sold as commodities throughout our world. 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. More than 70 percent are female and half of them are children. Sex trafficking is one of the most profitable forms of trafficking and involves any form of sexual exploitation, such as prostitution, pornography, bride trafficking, and the commercial sexual abuse of children. Human trafficking is a sin against the victim and a sin against God” (India Baptist Herald, Issue 14)
The numbers speak volumes of objectification and commercialization of humans:
• There are 27 million people worldwide in modern‐day slavery
• 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year
• 1.3 million children are exploited by the global sex trade, every year
• $32 billion in total profits are generated by the human trafficking industry yearly
Human trafficking, or trafficking of persons, is one of the world's largest organized criminal enterprises. Due to a lack of transparency and the informal and underground character of this ‘business’, it is difficult to arrive at exact figures of those exploited. However, it is said that thirty percent of them are children, mostly girls. It is a growing enterprise because slave labour is profitable. In the US, it is said that one girl earns about $ 200,000 per year for the owner! Poverty is one of the major factors that contribute to human trafficking. In an activity subject to the laws of supply and demand, service or commodity that is desired is generally met by those with a profit motive, intermediaries such as pimps, and other middlemen in the case of sex tourism. Usually, with little education, skills, and negligible employment opportunities, these disadvantaged women, and children, take recourse to use the only asset they have – their bodies. Children are even more helpless. Trafficked women and children have little control over their situation brought about by the ruthless ‘merchants’ and their agents peddling sex tourism motivated mainly by the lure of money. Tourists who take advantage of such human beings, and those who enable this to happen, are exploiters of the poor. The gloomiest reality of modern tourism is increasingly directed to human’s self-seeking pleasure, objectifying marginalized communities, women and children, and also their cultures as mere commodities. A study conducted in Goa by a group of Jesuit priests shows that the majority of the tourists in Goa are military personals and industrial workers. The Government of Israel provides a travel package to all the soldiers after the completion of compulsory military service as an incentive. The intention is to release stress and appease the soldiers after stressful work and training. Similarly, industrial workers are given travel package bonuses by the companies to release their accumulated feelings of oppression in alienating and health hazard working conditions. Tour packages are consciously organized by the ruling and owning class to avoid unrest, protest, and rebellion. Tourists who travel under these circumstances arrive at the destinations merely for enjoyment, relaxation, and pleasure. They objectify everything as a commodity for enjoyment and pleasure. Many of them come with a desire to fulfill their sexual lust without any respect for womanhood. They see women and children as mere objects to be exploited for enjoyment or as recreational commodities. It is a crime against humanity. It denies the values of human life. It endangers the physical and mental well-being of the victims and impedes their abilities to reach their full God-given potential. As Christians, we believe that every human being is created in the image and likeness of the divine Creator. We should resist this unjust system at any cost.
Objectification of Cultures for Money
Moreover, their culture is commercialized. Culture is the collective memory and heritage of the people that gives them an identity and binds them together as a distinct community. However, along with the commercialization of human communities and their bodies, their cultural heritages, customs, rituals, sacred shrines, places of worship, sacred music, and ceremonial dresses which were held with much reverence are now marketed without any respect. Many cultural heritages are marketed today in the form of mass recreation, a tool of government and business houses to earn money. It is an insult to God’s given spiritual heritage and wisdom.
The Bible against Objectification of Humans
The bible testifies that all humans are made in the image of God (Gen.1:26-27). God is the giver of life. It is the breath of God that makes life living. It means that all human beings deserve to be equally respected and each person’s inherent dignity must be protected. They are subjects of their life and not objects for exploitation. To treat humans as objects to earn more revenue is against the teaching of the bible. Also, the treatment of women and children, and vulnerable communities as service or commodity is in stark contrast to the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, any practice or system that treats human beings as mere objects for enjoyment by commodifying them is a travesty of human values and an insult to human beings. We can compare today’s commercial tourism with the ancient slavery system. Indebtedness was one of the main reasons for slavery in ancient Israel where minors were being sold by indebted parents or adults selling themselves (Exod. 22:25-27, cf. Deut. 15:12-17, 24:6,17). Elsewhere in Ancient West Asia, it is mentioned that exorbitant interest rates were the chief cause of slavery. While the rich people were competing to build “winter and summer houses” (Amos 3:15), the poor were “sold for a pair of sandals” (Amos 2:6) forcing them into slavery. Similarly, the profit-oriented tourism development force many marginalized communities such as indigenous people, women, and children to slavery. Let us not support companies, industries, or tours that do not respect life, culture, impedes local communities, and disregards the integrity of God’s creation. Let us love and respect life.
