"An Awful Human Trade," Vocabulary from the news article

"In West Africa, an alleged slave-ship snafu reflects the trauma of an ongoing business of marketing children as forced labor." This is the subtitle from an April 30, 2001 Time article by Simon Robinson and Nancy Palus. Read this list to find out more about why this awful human trade is so difficult to stop.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. tattered
    worn to shreds; or wearing torn or ragged clothing
    "They said they would take me to work in Abidjan, and they paid my parents," she says, angelic-looking in her slightly tattered, short cotton dress, which is black with bold pink and red flowers.
  2. bustle
    move or cause to move energetically or busily
    Put to work in the home of a relatively wealthy Beninese woman who lives in the Ivory Coast's bustling commercial capital, Zinwue now rises at 6 a.m. to sweep the house and courtyard, wash dishes and clean out the garbage cans.
  3. accessory
    an article worn to complement one's main clothing
    She spends the rest of the day at a local market selling trinkets and hair accessories at her boss's stall.
  4. estimate
    judge tentatively
    The U.N. Children's Fund estimates that some 200,000 children a year are trafficked in West and Central Africa.
  5. domestic
    of or relating to the home
    Girls are affected worst; most end up as domestic workers or prostitutes.
  6. plantation
    an estate where cash crops are grown on a large scale
    Boys are forced to work on coffee or cocoa plantations or as fishermen.
  7. traffic
    buying and selling, especially illicit trade
    The confusion itself is symbolic of the trafficking, the secretive way it is carried out.
  8. option
    one of a number of things from which only one can be chosen
    "These people are in areas where there are no options for children, no school, no jobs," says Beth Herzfeld, spokeswoman for Anti-Slavery International, a London-based advocacy group.
  9. affluent
    having an abundant supply of money or possessions of value
    And so parents sell their children to traders for as little as $15, in the hope that the children will find a better life in a relatively affluent neighboring country such as Ivory Coast or oil-rich Gabon.
  10. fuel
    stimulate
    Local traditions fuel the problem. In the past, it was normal for West African families to send a child to stay with richer relatives in the city and for newlyweds to hire a young village girl to cook and clean for them.
  11. distorted
    having an intended meaning altered or misrepresented
    But with "the fabric of the extended family breaking down, things have become distorted," says Lisa Kurbiel, a child-protection officer with UNICEF.
    The adjective also means "so badly formed or out of shape as to be ugly." While one definition is more physical and the other more abstract, both are suggested by the example sentence's description of the distortion. What started as a way to build family relationships became an opportunity for traders to make money off the desperation of poor, broken families. This change from the custom's intention shows the ugly side of human nature.
  12. custom
    a specific practice of long standing
    What was a custom has become an organized trade, with children being taken as far away as South Africa and the Middle East.
  13. depot
    a station for loading and unloading passengers or goods
    Closer to home, they end up in such places as the labor depot in central Abidjan, which offers young girls--most of them from villages in the north of the country--as servants for a few dollars a day.
  14. commerce
    transactions supplying goods and services
    "It's commerce pure and simple."
  15. effect
    (of a law) having legal validity
    Most have signed the International Labour Organization's Convention 182 against the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which went into effect last November.
  16. rehabilitation
    the restoration of someone to a useful place in society
    Last year Ivory Coast and Mali agreed to crack down on the trade between the two countries and announced a range of rehabilitation efforts to help children who return home.
    The noun can also refer to the treatment of physical disabilities, which could result from the children's forced labor in harsh conditions. Both definitions fit, because the returned children not only have to deal with any physical injuries but also with the emotional scars from having been sold by their parents.
  17. porous
    allowing passage in and out
    But the region's porous borders and ill-equipped police forces make it easy for smuggling to continue.
  18. eliminate
    do away with
    Are you going to tell me that as long as we have not eliminated poverty, we're going to keep selling children like objects and making them suffer?
  19. poverty
    the state of having little or no money and possessions
    Poverty encourages this kind of activity, yes.
  20. encourage
    contribute to the progress or growth of
    But failing to put children in school encourages it too. Failing to punish those who traffic children encourages it.
    The verb, especially with its connection to courage, usually describes a positive action. But here, the speaker uses the verb in a negative tone to connect to failure. In failing to discourage the traffickers, West Africa is encouraging the failure of its children and future.
Created on Tue Apr 21 15:44:19 EDT 2015 (updated Tue Apr 21 17:26:19 EDT 2015)

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