So I saw this story in the news last week.

N.Y. Couple Faces Forced Labor Charges

By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer

Wed May 16, 9:20 AM

MINEOLA, N.Y. - A millionaire couple were arrested on federal charges that they kept two Indonesian women as slaves in their swank Long Island home for more than five years, beating and abusing them and paying them almost nothing.

Authorities uncovered the alleged abuse after one of the women was found by police wandering outside a doughnut shop Sunday morning wearing only pants and a towel.

The story continues on in more detail about the abuse of these two women. This story reminded me of a news story about Kuwaiti diplomats from a couple months ago . . .

Servants: Diplomat Held Us as Suburban 'Slaves'

Three former servants are suing a Kuwaiti diplomat, alleging that he treated them like slaves in his suburban home in Washington, D.C. The workers are poor women from India, and they say the diplomat worked them for more than 15 hours a day. They also claim his wife beat one of them repeatedly.

More importantly though it reminded me of countless stories from locals in Kuwait about the abuse of servants. Servants are often treated like animals. I would say pets but first off most people in Kuwait dont keep pets and most pets I know are treated better than what Ive heard of servant treatment.

ECC's housekeeper (Laveena) has burn scars on her arms resulting from an incident with a previous house-mistress. I forget the details of how the initial burns happened, something about hot oil flashing in a pan when Laveena was awakened at some ungodly hour to make food for her employers. The scars however resulted not so much form the burns themselves as much as from the house mistress disallowing Laveena to keep the burns bandaged. This resulted in an infection at which point Laveena quit I believe. Of course in a country where servants must be sponsored to stay in the country you cant really quit your job. Laveena had to buy her freedom from her employer at the cost of a few months salary. Essentially the employer was holding her passport and refused to give it up unless she paid them. A friend of hers who's house-mistress would wake her when she was needed by poking her in the head with a hot curling iron. There are plenty of other stories just like this.

BTW, Laveena makes roughly $500 a month. This pay rate was a significant increase over the rate she was paid to be scarred for life. Many servants work for 1/3 of that amount in much worse conditions. Laveena went home to India last month for a short vacation, her first time home, her first time seeing her family, in five years. In those five years her sister had a son, and her family built a house with the money Laveena has been sending home. A house with plumbing and a roof (things her family didn't have when she left for Kuwait). Even knowing Laveena, hearing the stories first hand, seeing the scars I still cant comprehend this kind of existence.