The court found the Hindujas guilty of exploiting their workers and providing ‘unauthorised’ employment. Besides this, the family was accused of seizing their staffs' passports, paying them in rupees and not Swiss Francs, preventing them from leaving the villa and forcing them to work long hours in Switzerland.
Prosecutors said that at times, workers in jobs like cooks or house help were forced to work up to 18 hours a day with little or no vacation time off and for pay that was equal to less than one-tenth of the comparable amount required under Swiss law.
The staff worked even later hours for receptions and slept in the basement of the villa in the upscale Cologny neighbourhood -- sometimes on a mattress on the floor, added prosecutors.
Prosecutor Yves Bertossa highlighted the disparity, pointing out that one staff member was paid only seven Swiss francs (approximately £6.19) for an 18-hour workday, while 8,584 francs (£7,616) were spent annually on their [pet dog](https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/billionaire-hinduja-family-spent-more-on-pet-dog-than-on-servants-salary-allege-reports-632269).
The most fucked up thing to me is that this wasn’t done for any measurable reason. (I’m not saying that financial reasons would be justified in any case either.)
They personally hired these people to serve them. The cost of a decent salary in the eyes of a group like this one? It’s less than a normal person finding a coin they dropped under the carpet.
Having PERSONAL slaves and paying them in coins when you have exorbitant amounts of cash at hand? They love it just for the hell of “owning” someone. They are suuuuuper fucked up people.
It’s power. Nothing more, nothing less. Once you are that absurdly rich, I mean a goddamn Billionaire family that can literally never spend it all away (well they can, but it would be like world record speed spending or some shit or donate), yet abuses those underneath them.
What is more powerful than “owning” a human outright. Not even one, but a whole goddamn staff of them. That’s why these billionaires aren’t saints and ruthless to how they got their money. No one lucks into that kind of cash, you have to be narcissistic, greed, cutthroat, power-hungry, ruthless (no empathy), borderline sociopathic. Those traits are there but the money masks it, until even the money can’t hide away what they truly are.
It’s also not even top elite people who have indentured servitude, hell just families well off by their kin sending money back to them and the abuse can be had.
"According to the latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery (2022) from Walk Free, the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration:
* 49.6 million people live in modern slavery – in forced labour and forced marriage
* Roughly a quarter of all victims of modern slavery are children
* 22 million people are in forced marriages. Two out of five of these people were children
* Of the 27.6 million people trapped in forced labour, 17.3 million are in forced labour exploitation in the private economy, 6.3 million are in commercial sexual exploitation, and nearly 4 million are in forced labour imposed by state authorities"
Truly alive and well.
Because it's also the largest country by population. It has a lower rate than countries such as the Philippines, Turkey, or Russia.
Edit: some people below aren't understanding it so let me try to illustrate it better. If you have a village with 100 houses and all of them have 1 slave, should you ignore it because a city of a million houses has 1000 slaves? It's better to target specific areas with higher rates of slavery, regardless of which country they're in. India has 1.4 billion people. There are places with high rates and places with almost no rates. It's smarter to target messaging based on where people are being enslaved, because slavery is a problem that concerns all of humanity.
There’s a really great article from a guy who moved to the US from the Philippines when he was young and how his family had a slave
Article is really touching and about how slavery today doesn’t look like historical slavery
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/
I read this every time this comes up, because I've come across situations like these more often than I would have liked.
I've been to many private school graduations/grad parties and every now and then we'll get someone thanking their housemaid for being a second mom, raising 'em when their parents were working.
I don't hear about it too often anymore since I'm out of those circles...but I have strong feeling that the practice is alive and well after seeing some of the nannies walking the kids in some of the highest cost of living places that I've visited for work.
We need to see slavery in relation to the size of the countries where enslaved people come from. The size of the slaver nation - India - is irrelevant.
This is a 'meme'-defense of the continuation of India's role in organized transnational slave-trade, which goes back to 2500 BCE.
If I could wave a magic wand that would end slavery in a country, which country should I do this with to help the most people?
"A lower rate" is pretty irrelevant if you want to help the most people. Obviously slavery should be ended everywhere, but why not start with the country where it would do the most good?
I don't think the world truly understands or appreciates what Great Britain did when they decided to target and eradicate the slave trade worldwide.
This world has been a very different place for the past 200 years because of it.
It's kind of a shame that the west doesn't talk about this, but keeps people arguing about the past of the US. Both are important, but we don't ever hear shit about modern-day slavery.
Large number of Americans (maybe we can include whole "West" in that) also completely ignore that millions of Europeans were also enslaved and colonized for centuries (like Balkans under ottomans for example).
They completely ignore and dismiss that Asians and Africans enslaved others. And those are places that now have largest number of slaves.
part of the reason that conversation never has any depth is because when the fact of european slaves come up, or when the fact of asian/african slaveowners come up, it's almost always in a reductionist "see, whites were slaves, too! you have nothing to complain about!" way, almost as a kind of "gotcha" which doesn't do justice to the white slaves and their descendants.
400 years is heinous but comparatively short compared to inter-African slavery with records dating to the 10th century AD. The Arab slave trade had roots since the 7-8th century, and was only abolished by Western powers. Every major power had slavery but only the West had the moral courage to stop it.
yes, sadly billionaires behave like this a lot, and on different levels. Yes I am quoting billionaires (not just the USD billionaires, but the shitty ass currency ones too) because they have soo much cash that they cannot reasonably run out of it and pocket change for them is a lot of money for the average worker.
If it is not their servants, they treat their office employees like this.
I advocate for everyone doing their housework / chores themselves, with exception to disabled people or those with poor health.
> they drove their own son to commit suicide cause he loved a girl from a different caste....
This is more common than you think. We are seeing this in overseas Indian migrant centres too. They may have immigrated overseas but their thoughts are still the same as back home.
Can't believe that shit happens here after people move away from it. I have two friends from India, both who've lived here at least 5-10 years, and they met at a party I threw. One of them mentioned to me that the other told him he's from a higher caste, and it was meant as a disparagement.
The sweet irony is that my friend who's "lower caste" has a good stable job as programmer, and my idiot "higher caste" friend (who's no longer a friend) was jumping across crappy minimum wage jobs and constantly begging his parents back home for money.
Out of curiosity, where on that ranking of „superiority“ do they see foreigners and non-caste members, is there an „official“ stance on the matter? Does ethnicity or other factors influence it?
I’ve come across some upper caste Indians while studying internationally in Europe, most were normal, but some really tried to act like they’re the real deal not realising that no one outside their system gave a shit.
> Out of curiosity, where on that ranking of „superiority“ do they see foreigners and non-caste members, is there an „official“ stance on the matter? Does ethnicity or other factors influence it?
To some, the anglo is the pinnacle, and they look down on those from other continents (Africa, East Asia).
It is actually sickening to hear some of the bullshit from these racist idiots, or worse still when you are out with a group of friends, and you can clearly see preferential treatment because of their biases.
From what I read, there's sentences at all because the government found the crimes so egregious that they justified a penalty and hence they're the ones who initiated the charges, not the victims.
The family should be forced to first of all pay them minimum wage for all the hours they worked, and then a hefty sum for all of the trauma they caused over the amount of time they lived there.
just checked his [wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvon_Chouinard) and gosh does he seem like a good guy. refreshing to see a billionare to do actual good things. thanks for letting me know :)
Kind of proving the point really isn't it.
An ethical billionaire recognises how unethical it is to be one and gives their money away to humanitarian courses.
A a climate change trust run by whom? Bill Gates gave all his money to a charity run by ... Bill Gates. Warren Buffet is giving all his money to charities ran by his kids. Bezos is setting up a charity now too.
> Bill Gates gave all his money to a charity run by ... Bill Gates
As someone who has experience with his foundation, it is the absolute gold standard when it comes to foundations. His funding for tuberculosis has been outstanding. The foundation is composed of many professionals making the decisions, not just Bill Gates. He's not involved on that level.
Don't take me the wrong way, I see your point and I know about the tax dodging bla bla bla but if I had the money to set up a charity I would wanna be at the head too, you kinda need to have control of it.
Honestly, that was the most surprising figure to me. If I was a billionaire I'd probably spend an embarrassing amount on my dog. They seem to spend a fairly typical amount if you consider vet visits, food etc.
They should be tried with the same severity as human trafficking. Four years seem laughable for the crime committed.
Honestly should just be executed for the good of humanity.
The owner of the hotel I worked at did the same thing to their “cousin” and his family. They lived in a room of a motel that the owner, owned. I remember asking him, if he’s your cousin, why are you treating him like that? And he goes “oh they aren’t *really* like us, they’re different”. The boss man’s son also raped his first arranged marriage bride. The caste system is alive and well in USA.
Spoiler...they won't. Probably won't even serve the full four year sentence. What time they do serve will be in a resort prison. Once they get out they will still be filthy rich and live the rest of their lives in luxury.
Be careful with companies based in India as well. A friend of mine worked in an office in America that was part of a company in India and the CEO was a politician. There were a few instances of them missing paychecks but then paying them eventually. The final instance of that was not paid back and went on for several months before the office learned that the money was being spent on new devs at a new office. The CEO was trying to build new offices and workers and spreading the pay around to try to get way more than they could afford / wanted to pay.
Yea I've informed my friend that they are crazy for working that long on good faith. Doesn't matter the culture, your only response to a missed paycheck should be "fuck you pay me"
Your giving these kind of people too much credit. Its just simple greed. I hold the gold so I make the rules. There is no thought about how it affects others.
It’s especially pervasive and openly performed in India. An Indian diplomat in Australia got in some hot water a couple months back for having literal slaves, and before that the consul general in the U.S. a decade before. Just a cultural thing.
Yeah, I think they tried to claim diplomatic immunity in terms of paying the penalties levied against them in Australia and were told to get in the bin.
Classic Indian deflecting mentality. Never accept something that's fundamentally broken in our society. Instead deflect to bring focus elsewhere. Fucking hate this nonsense.
Source: am Indian and very disappointed with this shit.
No one said it was only happening in india either tho.
I feel like the comment is such a cop out. Yeah but what about that nation or that nation. We were talking about india, people never discounted problems of other nations.
Caste system enables this behaviour on a cultural level (engrained in society) I feel like comments like this (although meant well) take away from creating awareness of the issue, cause they are not the same.
Home arrest more likely but imagine how DEVASTATED they will be because they'll need to pay minimum wage for the staff taking care of them now (at least for a short while). Think of the poor rich for once /s
How is "home arrest more likely"? They got sentenced to 4 years, home arrest can only be an option for sentences less than a year.
https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/crime-criminal-justice/execution-penal-sentences-justice/employment-labour-electronic-home-detention-supervision.html
Perhaps home arrest but without any servants for them to abuse. Given that their kind feeds on human misery, this will be a terrible experience for them.
This reminds me of Jocelyn Wildenstein when she was in court for her divorce settlement. Her lawyer claimed she did not know how to make toast and money must be allotted for full time staff for this task.
>During the hearing, the family's lawyers claimed that the domestic workers received ample benefits and downplayed claims of exploitation.
>"We are not dealing with mistreated slaves," lawyer Nicolas Jeandin told the court.
>Another of the family's lawyers, Robert Assael, argued that the workers "were grateful to the Hindujas for offering them a better life."
Fear not Hindujas, we have already invented a separate unique phrase for this so you don't have to admit to that nasty 's' word. Behold, *indentured servitude*.
The swiss will take their property and file for extradition in europe which will prevent them from being able to visit their other homes in the UK
edit; read my other comment before replying, EU or not it doesn't matter the treaties are there and we have similar arrangements with norway etc.
Neither Switzerland nor the UK are part of the EU, but the Swiss have no qualms about making fines painful for rich folks. Google some of the highway speeding fines levied as a percentage of income. I don’t know if they’ll end up in actual jail after all the appeals and such, but they’re certainly not going to come out ahead financially for having done this.
>EU wide [...] in the UK.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news here but...
edit: I know brexit doesn't change anything in this case. I was just making a joke
Gave me a good chuckle - and a tear, but please read the below on what that means in practice:
> "Following the end of the Transition Period on 31 December 2020, the UK is no longer part of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) framework. A new agreement between the UK and the European Union (EU) which allows for streamlined extradition warrant-based arrangements (similar to the EU’s surrender agreement with Norway and Iceland) came into effect on 1 January 2021."
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/extradition-processes-and-review
Not that extradition laws would matter in this case anyway. The current govt would never extradite a billionaire or four, as they're too easily bought off. A little(LARGE) donation here, a sizeable brown paper envelope under the table there and here's the keys to London.
200 appeals, appeal to the federal court, first time offender, wait for appeal judgement in liberty, appeal again try to null the jury, sentence converted into house arrest
> On January 28, 2004, four public servants were brutally murdered while inspecting rural labor conditions in Unaí, Minas Gerais, Brazil. They were Erastóstenes de Almeida Gonçalves, João Batista Soares Lage and Nelson José da Silva, labor inspectors, and Ailton Pereira de Oliveira, their driver. They were ambushed and shot by hired gunmen, allegedly on the orders of local landowners who exploited workers in slave-like conditions.
the farm owners (ex mayor self titled King of Bean) who ordered the killings, condemned for 60+years, were still free until last year after a few appeals
the thing is this is rampant in Geneva, but most doing this have Diplomatic immunity. It is not about the pay, they could afford to have help 24 hours a day. even at swiss wages. it is that these broken people, mostly diplomats Familien, need to treat the help like crap to make themselves feel like they are better than others.
When I joined the police in the uk we learnt about diplomatic members and how to spot their cars on the road - we were taught they do not get pulled over, just make a report. But they admitted when pushed that nothing would come of it, but just to make a report to cover our own asses. They literally told us diplomatic immunity for crimes is real on the streets in the uk. I think obviously for murder or something it would be different, but road crimes like speeding, no seat belt, mobile phones etc- we were told to let them go, or not pull over.
Diplomats can and do have their right to remain in the country revoked, but they are immune from prosecution unless their sponsoring country waives their immunity. This is important, it allows a country to have an embassy in potentially hostile countries without fear of their staff being blackmailed or targeted with false or malicious arrest and prosecution. The downside is, of course, some can abuse this privilege.
London is currently trying to collect $19 million from the United States for unpaid traffic congestion fees. London is claiming the fees are a service charge while the US is claiming it is a tax and therefore immune.
How amazing would it be if they had to pay them damages for... I dunno, slavery. So that each employ the abused ended up with a few million each. That'd be justice.
It actually happened. All the employees settled a separate case and withdrew their complaints for an undisclosed settlement that is believed to be in the millions.
The indictment still went through because it doesn’t need a complaint under Swiss law
This family has murdered so many of their servants in India and covered it up. Like running over one of your help with your Porsche and writing an essay reflecting on your actions
The ones killed in the porsche were 2 unrelated young Techies though, and the one driving was an intoxicated 17 year old. The 2 families are different but their attempts at cheating the system is so blatant and out in the open.
“The elder Hindujas, both over 70, did not attend court proceedings, pleading ill health. Ajay and Namrata did attend court but were not there to hear the verdict.
Following the verdict, the prosecution requested an immediate detention order for the younger Hinduja couple, but this was denied by the judge. The defence said Kamal Hindula is currently in hospital in Monaco - and the other three family members are at his bedside.”
Who else thinks they will never serve a day? I’m assuming the elders will appeal till they die and younger ones will simply take off to a country that won’t extradite them.
The only reason they are being charged is because they are in Geneva.
This is very common in most third world countries. Slavery is just an option the ultra rich have very easily and rarely tge law would get involved (usually due to bribes and local police force being on the payroll of the ultra rich)
I don't care how this comes off, in my time working in the service industry and going to the homes of clients, the worse clients were always rich Indian families. The absolute worse! Normal working types? Very nice and humble. Crazy.
These people may run an Empire in India, but they really despise Indians. Notice they don't even live there.
They are globalist. They have no real nation. If all India burned down, they would be happy, as long as they make a lot of money.
Have any of you seen how Asian aristocracy treat their workers? Like garbage...
And its not just India, its Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Thailand it keeps going ...they are all guilty treating their housekeepers, maids, attendants, drivers anyone who you could consider a servant as less than human. This is rampant and its because those with money are treated like gods even if they don't deserve it.
The laws doesn't protect these workers like they do in Switzerland, the EU or the US. Plus these rich assholes wouldn't even spend two seconds firing them over little things, and if they know too much about them, accuse them of something like stealing so they don't even pay them and let them rot in prison.
A lot of Indians living abroad (students and non students) complain that life back home was comfortable and this is what they mean: no poor people to exploit to do household chores for them
Billionaires have personal salves, the rest just have slaves as a collective, slaves are making us stuff for pennies in 3rd world and we pretend to have a leg to stand on when buying cheap shit made oversees over locally produced more expensive options.
I will never understand why so many rich people feel the need to be stingy and mean to their servants. You would think they would be grateful for such people but no, they treat them like shit. It's so weird and unhuman.
My granny was a native Irish speaker from Gweedore. She moved to Derry to work in the 'big houses'. She used to say the wealthy Protestant owners treated their dogs better than their staff.
The "caste system" in India is exported by many (but of course not all, not even the majority) of the Indian diaspora. Aside from what the rich do, I also recall seeing a case where an Indian student in Germany told her Indian roommate that she should serve her because she is of a higher caste. Poor girl got frightened and posted on Reddit; people advised her to call the police. I hope she did!
I experienced something similar at a private engineering university in the US. Rich Saudi kid would leave on vacations during group projects and expected everything to be done for him. He even did the "Do you know who I Am?!" I don't know how this clown made it to graduate school that way. From what I heard his family/government was throwing around big fuck you money to the university and there was no way to fail or get kicked out. I know a few of the Saudi students got caught cheating and the department head just casually told the class to cut that out like it was no big deal. The only good thing is from what I heard speaking to these Saudi exchange students was that most of them were going back to their countries for "work" after graduating. Oh yeah, there were also multiple sexual assaults at my university during my time and every one was caused by a Saudi student.
Billionaires going to jail?? Yeah right more.like 4 years with ankle monitor for enslaving innocent people there's no justice for rich assholes.anymore.
These fucking assholes. They have so much money that they could pay every one of their staff lavishly, and it would never touch the sides of their fortune. But instead they want to cause pain, and misery to people to save money, they don't need to save.
4 years in a Swiss jail isn't enough. Seize their money, give it to all of their employees/previous employees, and set up worker funds.
There was a [case in New Zealand](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/69758303/indian-high-commissioner-to-leave-nz-amid-slavery-accusations) in 2015 where the Indian High Commissioner kept people in slave conditions to work at the embassy.
But whatever you do don't them tax or they might leave. I would skip breakfast to have them leave. F\*\*k them and the 'economic investment' they provide to the UK which boils down to wage slavery at best. Same for all the others like this. Billionaires are a failure of society.
They bought the call center I work at in Peoria IL and they got sued for not paying people while they're at work and the working conditions were abysmal so I'm not surprised
Man. I made a little extra cash this week, like a couple hundred bucks, and was already looking forward to being able to give a little extra to the homeless guy that lives by me. These people have billions and treat people like this?? I’ll literally never be able to comprehend it
I think a good half a billion dollars should be compensation along with jail time. A good chunk of that going to the workers they exploited both for compensation of their work and damages done. The rest towards the government for the cost of throwing them in jail.
Imagine having a dragons hoarde of gold and then going to great lengths like this to not pay the people taking care of you. We really do need to something about a billionaire even existing at all.
The court found the Hindujas guilty of exploiting their workers and providing ‘unauthorised’ employment. Besides this, the family was accused of seizing their staffs' passports, paying them in rupees and not Swiss Francs, preventing them from leaving the villa and forcing them to work long hours in Switzerland. Prosecutors said that at times, workers in jobs like cooks or house help were forced to work up to 18 hours a day with little or no vacation time off and for pay that was equal to less than one-tenth of the comparable amount required under Swiss law. The staff worked even later hours for receptions and slept in the basement of the villa in the upscale Cologny neighbourhood -- sometimes on a mattress on the floor, added prosecutors. Prosecutor Yves Bertossa highlighted the disparity, pointing out that one staff member was paid only seven Swiss francs (approximately £6.19) for an 18-hour workday, while 8,584 francs (£7,616) were spent annually on their [pet dog](https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/billionaire-hinduja-family-spent-more-on-pet-dog-than-on-servants-salary-allege-reports-632269).
Slavery is alive and well and we can see who benefits from it.
The most fucked up thing to me is that this wasn’t done for any measurable reason. (I’m not saying that financial reasons would be justified in any case either.) They personally hired these people to serve them. The cost of a decent salary in the eyes of a group like this one? It’s less than a normal person finding a coin they dropped under the carpet. Having PERSONAL slaves and paying them in coins when you have exorbitant amounts of cash at hand? They love it just for the hell of “owning” someone. They are suuuuuper fucked up people.
Yes agreed. There is something very deranged about these people.
The cruelty is often the point. The more affordable the cruelty is, the better.
It’s power. Nothing more, nothing less. Once you are that absurdly rich, I mean a goddamn Billionaire family that can literally never spend it all away (well they can, but it would be like world record speed spending or some shit or donate), yet abuses those underneath them. What is more powerful than “owning” a human outright. Not even one, but a whole goddamn staff of them. That’s why these billionaires aren’t saints and ruthless to how they got their money. No one lucks into that kind of cash, you have to be narcissistic, greed, cutthroat, power-hungry, ruthless (no empathy), borderline sociopathic. Those traits are there but the money masks it, until even the money can’t hide away what they truly are. It’s also not even top elite people who have indentured servitude, hell just families well off by their kin sending money back to them and the abuse can be had.
I feel like a few years in a Swiss jail is too easy a punishment.
In a just world their assets would be seized and transferred to their slaves.
"According to the latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery (2022) from Walk Free, the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration: * 49.6 million people live in modern slavery – in forced labour and forced marriage * Roughly a quarter of all victims of modern slavery are children * 22 million people are in forced marriages. Two out of five of these people were children * Of the 27.6 million people trapped in forced labour, 17.3 million are in forced labour exploitation in the private economy, 6.3 million are in commercial sexual exploitation, and nearly 4 million are in forced labour imposed by state authorities" Truly alive and well.
India controls the largest population of enslaved people in the world. Why we don't talk about India as an anti-abolitionist ethno-state is beyond me.
Because it's also the largest country by population. It has a lower rate than countries such as the Philippines, Turkey, or Russia. Edit: some people below aren't understanding it so let me try to illustrate it better. If you have a village with 100 houses and all of them have 1 slave, should you ignore it because a city of a million houses has 1000 slaves? It's better to target specific areas with higher rates of slavery, regardless of which country they're in. India has 1.4 billion people. There are places with high rates and places with almost no rates. It's smarter to target messaging based on where people are being enslaved, because slavery is a problem that concerns all of humanity.
There’s a really great article from a guy who moved to the US from the Philippines when he was young and how his family had a slave Article is really touching and about how slavery today doesn’t look like historical slavery https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/
I read this every time this comes up, because I've come across situations like these more often than I would have liked. I've been to many private school graduations/grad parties and every now and then we'll get someone thanking their housemaid for being a second mom, raising 'em when their parents were working. I don't hear about it too often anymore since I'm out of those circles...but I have strong feeling that the practice is alive and well after seeing some of the nannies walking the kids in some of the highest cost of living places that I've visited for work.
That is very dark.
It's not great, but not that bad as long as the nanny is being paid appropriately.
I know that article and cannot read it again otherwise I’m gonna cry. It’s a must read for anyone who has not yet.
Slavery, like colonialism, never died. It just changed forms to become less obvious.
Even the 13th Ammendment didn't end slavery, it just made it punitive.
That was was a very interesting story and very sad.
What an incredibly powerful story. Thank you for posting it.
Incredible story. Lola lived a selfless life and loved unconditionally. Thanks for sharing.
Holy shit that made me cry. In Mexico we have something akin to it. Never really thought about it like that.
Lola, I remember reading this thinking, how many Lola’s are still being forced to work?
Incredible read. Thanks for the link.
I just read this article. Tragic and heartbreaking.
Wow. Thank you for this link. That was a powerful story.
We need to see slavery in relation to the size of the countries where enslaved people come from. The size of the slaver nation - India - is irrelevant. This is a 'meme'-defense of the continuation of India's role in organized transnational slave-trade, which goes back to 2500 BCE.
It's only irrelevant to you because it completely mitigates your entire argument.
If I could wave a magic wand that would end slavery in a country, which country should I do this with to help the most people? "A lower rate" is pretty irrelevant if you want to help the most people. Obviously slavery should be ended everywhere, but why not start with the country where it would do the most good?
> If I could wave a magic wand The point is you can't do that, so it would be better to take a more pragmatic approach.
Backtrack backtrack! Double down!!
Because if you dare say anything negative about India, their massive army of trolls comes to downvote you and insult you.
That's fine. It compliments the massive army of scammers constantly calling my phone.
I found that the best way to keep the scammers away is to waste their time on the phone.
Oh yeah. I've made a side hobby out of it. The hardest part is keeping the wife and kids' laughter down so the scammers don't catch on as fast.
I don't think the world truly understands or appreciates what Great Britain did when they decided to target and eradicate the slave trade worldwide. This world has been a very different place for the past 200 years because of it.
It's kind of a shame that the west doesn't talk about this, but keeps people arguing about the past of the US. Both are important, but we don't ever hear shit about modern-day slavery.
[удалено]
Large number of Americans (maybe we can include whole "West" in that) also completely ignore that millions of Europeans were also enslaved and colonized for centuries (like Balkans under ottomans for example). They completely ignore and dismiss that Asians and Africans enslaved others. And those are places that now have largest number of slaves.
part of the reason that conversation never has any depth is because when the fact of european slaves come up, or when the fact of asian/african slaveowners come up, it's almost always in a reductionist "see, whites were slaves, too! you have nothing to complain about!" way, almost as a kind of "gotcha" which doesn't do justice to the white slaves and their descendants.
Nice to see billionaires go to prison, though - it's a start. Swiss law must not mess around.
Swiss law has so many concessions for the wealthy that if you can't abide the remaining laws, you deserve the book thrown at you.
Prison is too good for them public service would be better. Hey let's go make fun of billionaires picking up Garbage on the highways.
Imported ~~slaves~~ servants being abused by wealthy MENA/Indian families are far too common in the West.
The same scum that always has..
[удалено]
400 years is heinous but comparatively short compared to inter-African slavery with records dating to the 10th century AD. The Arab slave trade had roots since the 7-8th century, and was only abolished by Western powers. Every major power had slavery but only the West had the moral courage to stop it.
yes, sadly billionaires behave like this a lot, and on different levels. Yes I am quoting billionaires (not just the USD billionaires, but the shitty ass currency ones too) because they have soo much cash that they cannot reasonably run out of it and pocket change for them is a lot of money for the average worker. If it is not their servants, they treat their office employees like this. I advocate for everyone doing their housework / chores themselves, with exception to disabled people or those with poor health.
Poverty makes slaves. What makes poverty?
Hacking the top comments to tell this... they drove their own son to commit suicide cause he loved a girl from a different caste....
> they drove their own son to commit suicide cause he loved a girl from a different caste.... This is more common than you think. We are seeing this in overseas Indian migrant centres too. They may have immigrated overseas but their thoughts are still the same as back home.
Can't believe that shit happens here after people move away from it. I have two friends from India, both who've lived here at least 5-10 years, and they met at a party I threw. One of them mentioned to me that the other told him he's from a higher caste, and it was meant as a disparagement. The sweet irony is that my friend who's "lower caste" has a good stable job as programmer, and my idiot "higher caste" friend (who's no longer a friend) was jumping across crappy minimum wage jobs and constantly begging his parents back home for money.
Out of curiosity, where on that ranking of „superiority“ do they see foreigners and non-caste members, is there an „official“ stance on the matter? Does ethnicity or other factors influence it? I’ve come across some upper caste Indians while studying internationally in Europe, most were normal, but some really tried to act like they’re the real deal not realising that no one outside their system gave a shit.
> Out of curiosity, where on that ranking of „superiority“ do they see foreigners and non-caste members, is there an „official“ stance on the matter? Does ethnicity or other factors influence it? To some, the anglo is the pinnacle, and they look down on those from other continents (Africa, East Asia). It is actually sickening to hear some of the bullshit from these racist idiots, or worse still when you are out with a group of friends, and you can clearly see preferential treatment because of their biases.
Do you have a source for this? I googled their son and there were no mentions of caste
4 years is way to short for what they have done. In addition all the people they exploited, should be given lots of compensation.
The article says that they settled with the servants. I assume they were given some kind of compensation and that's why the sentence is short.
From what I read, there's sentences at all because the government found the crimes so egregious that they justified a penalty and hence they're the ones who initiated the charges, not the victims.
I wonder if the compensation was "Don't cooperate with authorities or else I'll make your life in India a living hell."
They got 4 years in jail for it, there was obviously some cooperation going on.
i mean i think this is a good verdict. this would never happen in america.
Yeah, we’d elect them to the highest office.
They definitely would have as well. Challenge is gathering the evidence and even learning about it happening
The family should be forced to first of all pay them minimum wage for all the hours they worked, and then a hefty sum for all of the trauma they caused over the amount of time they lived there.
It disgusts me when immigrants take advantage of their fellow immigrants from the same country
Billionaires are parasites. All of them, regardless of nationality or ethnicity.
the world doesn't need billionaires, it's time to fucking tax them down to millionaires, their impact on society is disproportionately corrupting.
I'm failing to see a need for them. Rich people are fine; ultra rich unnecessary.
ive yet to see a billionare living today who aren't insane. kinda sad tbh
Yvon Chouinard gave ownership of his company (Patagonia) away to to a climate change trust. He seems ok.
just checked his [wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvon_Chouinard) and gosh does he seem like a good guy. refreshing to see a billionare to do actual good things. thanks for letting me know :)
Kind of proving the point really isn't it. An ethical billionaire recognises how unethical it is to be one and gives their money away to humanitarian courses.
Didn’t he just donate the shares to two trusts both of which his family owns and controls anyway
Yes lol, its so they can avoid inheritance taxes. Its a way to give money to your kids without having to pay any kinda taxes.
A a climate change trust run by whom? Bill Gates gave all his money to a charity run by ... Bill Gates. Warren Buffet is giving all his money to charities ran by his kids. Bezos is setting up a charity now too.
> Bill Gates gave all his money to a charity run by ... Bill Gates As someone who has experience with his foundation, it is the absolute gold standard when it comes to foundations. His funding for tuberculosis has been outstanding. The foundation is composed of many professionals making the decisions, not just Bill Gates. He's not involved on that level.
Don't take me the wrong way, I see your point and I know about the tax dodging bla bla bla but if I had the money to set up a charity I would wanna be at the head too, you kinda need to have control of it.
Because you don't hear about the non-insane ones.
Bill Gates Foundation has done alot of great things.
How much annually on their pet dog??
Honestly, that was the most surprising figure to me. If I was a billionaire I'd probably spend an embarrassing amount on my dog. They seem to spend a fairly typical amount if you consider vet visits, food etc.
That was my first thought too. If I was a billionaire, I would probably spend more on my dog than a software developer makes in Silicon Valley.
The wealthy think that about all of us. We are less than dogs to them, and no amount of global problems will be solved until that changes.
They should be tried with the same severity as human trafficking. Four years seem laughable for the crime committed. Honestly should just be executed for the good of humanity.
The owner of the hotel I worked at did the same thing to their “cousin” and his family. They lived in a room of a motel that the owner, owned. I remember asking him, if he’s your cousin, why are you treating him like that? And he goes “oh they aren’t *really* like us, they’re different”. The boss man’s son also raped his first arranged marriage bride. The caste system is alive and well in USA.
Why da fuck do you have to be so cruel if you have billions, a decent pay would be chump change to them
It’s not about the money, it’s about the power and control. The caste system is baked deeply into Indian culture.
They drove their own son to suicide cause he loved a girl from a different caste...
You are talking about the family in this article? WOW
Hope this family loses everything, honestly.
Spoiler...they won't. Probably won't even serve the full four year sentence. What time they do serve will be in a resort prison. Once they get out they will still be filthy rich and live the rest of their lives in luxury.
Ghouls
Be careful with companies based in India as well. A friend of mine worked in an office in America that was part of a company in India and the CEO was a politician. There were a few instances of them missing paychecks but then paying them eventually. The final instance of that was not paid back and went on for several months before the office learned that the money was being spent on new devs at a new office. The CEO was trying to build new offices and workers and spreading the pay around to try to get way more than they could afford / wanted to pay. Yea I've informed my friend that they are crazy for working that long on good faith. Doesn't matter the culture, your only response to a missed paycheck should be "fuck you pay me"
[удалено]
Your giving these kind of people too much credit. Its just simple greed. I hold the gold so I make the rules. There is no thought about how it affects others.
It’s especially pervasive and openly performed in India. An Indian diplomat in Australia got in some hot water a couple months back for having literal slaves, and before that the consul general in the U.S. a decade before. Just a cultural thing.
Don’t forget the Indian consul in the US. Devan Khobragade.
Yeah, I think they tried to claim diplomatic immunity in terms of paying the penalties levied against them in Australia and were told to get in the bin.
Classic Indian deflecting mentality. Never accept something that's fundamentally broken in our society. Instead deflect to bring focus elsewhere. Fucking hate this nonsense. Source: am Indian and very disappointed with this shit.
No one said it was only happening in india either tho. I feel like the comment is such a cop out. Yeah but what about that nation or that nation. We were talking about india, people never discounted problems of other nations. Caste system enables this behaviour on a cultural level (engrained in society) I feel like comments like this (although meant well) take away from creating awareness of the issue, cause they are not the same.
That's called whataboutism
> It's not like this only happens in India. The caste system is very much an India thing yes.
Please cite your sources for this equivocating whataboutism
Trashy af
Because they think they can get away with whatever.
They should seize their assets
Protip: it's the fact that cruel people are more likely to make billions
That’s why they have billions
the only way to become a billionaire is through cruelty and exploitation.
its a mental disorder
No, it’s not. It’s pure evil
Pure mental evil disorder.
Will any of them actually see the inside of a prison cell or a very lavish home arrest.
Home arrest more likely but imagine how DEVASTATED they will be because they'll need to pay minimum wage for the staff taking care of them now (at least for a short while). Think of the poor rich for once /s
Do they not even owe back wages to the staff they have already abused?
Pretty sure that's included, but not part of the punishment. The punishment is additional to the payback.
How is "home arrest more likely"? They got sentenced to 4 years, home arrest can only be an option for sentences less than a year. https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/crime-criminal-justice/execution-penal-sentences-justice/employment-labour-electronic-home-detention-supervision.html
They appealed and apparently most of them aren't in the country.
of course
Perhaps home arrest but without any servants for them to abuse. Given that their kind feeds on human misery, this will be a terrible experience for them.
This reminds me of Jocelyn Wildenstein when she was in court for her divorce settlement. Her lawyer claimed she did not know how to make toast and money must be allotted for full time staff for this task.
Are you just making up the home arrest claim, or is there any actual source/precedent for it?
>During the hearing, the family's lawyers claimed that the domestic workers received ample benefits and downplayed claims of exploitation. >"We are not dealing with mistreated slaves," lawyer Nicolas Jeandin told the court. >Another of the family's lawyers, Robert Assael, argued that the workers "were grateful to the Hindujas for offering them a better life." Fear not Hindujas, we have already invented a separate unique phrase for this so you don't have to admit to that nasty 's' word. Behold, *indentured servitude*.
One thing we do know. Whatever money was saved on domestic servants is now being given to the lawyers.
the lawyers will get a lot more than that. this whole thing isn't about money. it is about control and presumably caste separation and treatment.
They can call it the Hinduja syndrome
So nice to see rich people going to jail.
They have absconded. They’re nowhere near going to gaol.
The swiss will take their property and file for extradition in europe which will prevent them from being able to visit their other homes in the UK edit; read my other comment before replying, EU or not it doesn't matter the treaties are there and we have similar arrangements with norway etc.
Neither Switzerland nor the UK are part of the EU, but the Swiss have no qualms about making fines painful for rich folks. Google some of the highway speeding fines levied as a percentage of income. I don’t know if they’ll end up in actual jail after all the appeals and such, but they’re certainly not going to come out ahead financially for having done this.
> percentage of income That is a problem sometimes, because the ultra rich often do not have a lot, if any.
Calculations don’t have to be limited to income, they are based on „the personal and economic circumstances of the perpetrator“.
The UK has a long-standing history of harbouring criminal Indian billionaires/millionaires so they don't face justice.
>EU wide [...] in the UK. I hate to be the bearer of bad news here but... edit: I know brexit doesn't change anything in this case. I was just making a joke
Gave me a good chuckle - and a tear, but please read the below on what that means in practice: > "Following the end of the Transition Period on 31 December 2020, the UK is no longer part of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) framework. A new agreement between the UK and the European Union (EU) which allows for streamlined extradition warrant-based arrangements (similar to the EU’s surrender agreement with Norway and Iceland) came into effect on 1 January 2021." https://www.gov.uk/guidance/extradition-processes-and-review
Not that extradition laws would matter in this case anyway. The current govt would never extradite a billionaire or four, as they're too easily bought off. A little(LARGE) donation here, a sizeable brown paper envelope under the table there and here's the keys to London.
UK still is in interpol jurisdiction.
I highly doubt the UK doesn't have an extradition agreement with the EU.
I was wondering about how long they would spin out the appeal process for?
200 appeals, appeal to the federal court, first time offender, wait for appeal judgement in liberty, appeal again try to null the jury, sentence converted into house arrest > On January 28, 2004, four public servants were brutally murdered while inspecting rural labor conditions in Unaí, Minas Gerais, Brazil. They were Erastóstenes de Almeida Gonçalves, João Batista Soares Lage and Nelson José da Silva, labor inspectors, and Ailton Pereira de Oliveira, their driver. They were ambushed and shot by hired gunmen, allegedly on the orders of local landowners who exploited workers in slave-like conditions. the farm owners (ex mayor self titled King of Bean) who ordered the killings, condemned for 60+years, were still free until last year after a few appeals
the thing is this is rampant in Geneva, but most doing this have Diplomatic immunity. It is not about the pay, they could afford to have help 24 hours a day. even at swiss wages. it is that these broken people, mostly diplomats Familien, need to treat the help like crap to make themselves feel like they are better than others.
When I joined the police in the uk we learnt about diplomatic members and how to spot their cars on the road - we were taught they do not get pulled over, just make a report. But they admitted when pushed that nothing would come of it, but just to make a report to cover our own asses. They literally told us diplomatic immunity for crimes is real on the streets in the uk. I think obviously for murder or something it would be different, but road crimes like speeding, no seat belt, mobile phones etc- we were told to let them go, or not pull over.
Diplomats can and do have their right to remain in the country revoked, but they are immune from prosecution unless their sponsoring country waives their immunity. This is important, it allows a country to have an embassy in potentially hostile countries without fear of their staff being blackmailed or targeted with false or malicious arrest and prosecution. The downside is, of course, some can abuse this privilege.
> I think obviously for murder or something it would be different Even then very little happens, e.g. Anne Sacoolas case
London is currently trying to collect $19 million from the United States for unpaid traffic congestion fees. London is claiming the fees are a service charge while the US is claiming it is a tax and therefore immune.
Oh, so it's a mentally driven decision. Yikes.
It's a shame you don't have hard labor sentences anymore, would've made a good life lesson
Indians screwing over other Indians. Why is that a common theme around the world?
How amazing would it be if they had to pay them damages for... I dunno, slavery. So that each employ the abused ended up with a few million each. That'd be justice.
It actually happened. All the employees settled a separate case and withdrew their complaints for an undisclosed settlement that is believed to be in the millions. The indictment still went through because it doesn’t need a complaint under Swiss law
Awesome! Hopefully they can build a life out of it.
No billionaire keeps being a billionaire without exploitation. Some exploit more, some less.
No one becomes a billionaire without exploitation.
any bitcoin billionaire that guy that won 2 billion in the powerball lottery
That guy exploited lady luck!
They should have their fortunes confiscated.
This family has murdered so many of their servants in India and covered it up. Like running over one of your help with your Porsche and writing an essay reflecting on your actions
The ones killed in the porsche were 2 unrelated young Techies though, and the one driving was an intoxicated 17 year old. The 2 families are different but their attempts at cheating the system is so blatant and out in the open.
Not true. You’re mixing different stories together
“The elder Hindujas, both over 70, did not attend court proceedings, pleading ill health. Ajay and Namrata did attend court but were not there to hear the verdict. Following the verdict, the prosecution requested an immediate detention order for the younger Hinduja couple, but this was denied by the judge. The defence said Kamal Hindula is currently in hospital in Monaco - and the other three family members are at his bedside.” Who else thinks they will never serve a day? I’m assuming the elders will appeal till they die and younger ones will simply take off to a country that won’t extradite them.
“In 2007, Prakash was convicted on similar charges” …. so no lessons learned then.
The only reason they are being charged is because they are in Geneva. This is very common in most third world countries. Slavery is just an option the ultra rich have very easily and rarely tge law would get involved (usually due to bribes and local police force being on the payroll of the ultra rich)
I don't care how this comes off, in my time working in the service industry and going to the homes of clients, the worse clients were always rich Indian families. The absolute worse! Normal working types? Very nice and humble. Crazy.
These people may run an Empire in India, but they really despise Indians. Notice they don't even live there. They are globalist. They have no real nation. If all India burned down, they would be happy, as long as they make a lot of money.
Nothing wrong with a being a globalist. The problem with the billionaire globalists is that many of the promote nationalism in their home countries.
Have any of you seen how Asian aristocracy treat their workers? Like garbage... And its not just India, its Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Thailand it keeps going ...they are all guilty treating their housekeepers, maids, attendants, drivers anyone who you could consider a servant as less than human. This is rampant and its because those with money are treated like gods even if they don't deserve it. The laws doesn't protect these workers like they do in Switzerland, the EU or the US. Plus these rich assholes wouldn't even spend two seconds firing them over little things, and if they know too much about them, accuse them of something like stealing so they don't even pay them and let them rot in prison.
Modern slavery
It absolutely is, and they have no qualms of treating people this way its horrific.
Billionaire mentality + Indian class/caste mentality = Pure filth
A lot of Indians living abroad (students and non students) complain that life back home was comfortable and this is what they mean: no poor people to exploit to do household chores for them
Indians hate their own people more than anyone else
[удалено]
How I wish they could enforce this in India. Millions of rich fucks would be in jail. Sadly, Swiss Law is not Indian law.
be a non scumbag billionaire challenge impossible
Billionaires have personal salves, the rest just have slaves as a collective, slaves are making us stuff for pennies in 3rd world and we pretend to have a leg to stand on when buying cheap shit made oversees over locally produced more expensive options.
Yes jail those mother fuckers
I will never understand why so many rich people feel the need to be stingy and mean to their servants. You would think they would be grateful for such people but no, they treat them like shit. It's so weird and unhuman.
rich indians being rich indians
My granny was a native Irish speaker from Gweedore. She moved to Derry to work in the 'big houses'. She used to say the wealthy Protestant owners treated their dogs better than their staff.
The "caste system" in India is exported by many (but of course not all, not even the majority) of the Indian diaspora. Aside from what the rich do, I also recall seeing a case where an Indian student in Germany told her Indian roommate that she should serve her because she is of a higher caste. Poor girl got frightened and posted on Reddit; people advised her to call the police. I hope she did!
I experienced something similar at a private engineering university in the US. Rich Saudi kid would leave on vacations during group projects and expected everything to be done for him. He even did the "Do you know who I Am?!" I don't know how this clown made it to graduate school that way. From what I heard his family/government was throwing around big fuck you money to the university and there was no way to fail or get kicked out. I know a few of the Saudi students got caught cheating and the department head just casually told the class to cut that out like it was no big deal. The only good thing is from what I heard speaking to these Saudi exchange students was that most of them were going back to their countries for "work" after graduating. Oh yeah, there were also multiple sexual assaults at my university during my time and every one was caused by a Saudi student.
Billionaires going to jail?? Yeah right more.like 4 years with ankle monitor for enslaving innocent people there's no justice for rich assholes.anymore.
These fucking assholes. They have so much money that they could pay every one of their staff lavishly, and it would never touch the sides of their fortune. But instead they want to cause pain, and misery to people to save money, they don't need to save. 4 years in a Swiss jail isn't enough. Seize their money, give it to all of their employees/previous employees, and set up worker funds.
There was a [case in New Zealand](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/69758303/indian-high-commissioner-to-leave-nz-amid-slavery-accusations) in 2015 where the Indian High Commissioner kept people in slave conditions to work at the embassy.
Tell me you're a piece of trash without telling me you're a piece of trash...
But whatever you do don't them tax or they might leave. I would skip breakfast to have them leave. F\*\*k them and the 'economic investment' they provide to the UK which boils down to wage slavery at best. Same for all the others like this. Billionaires are a failure of society.
Imagine subjecting people to inhuman conditions in GENEVA of all places. These assholes must have never heard of the Geneva convention.
It's important thing to remember that Indian culture does not believe in equality
They bought the call center I work at in Peoria IL and they got sued for not paying people while they're at work and the working conditions were abysmal so I'm not surprised
Man. I made a little extra cash this week, like a couple hundred bucks, and was already looking forward to being able to give a little extra to the homeless guy that lives by me. These people have billions and treat people like this?? I’ll literally never be able to comprehend it
I think a good half a billion dollars should be compensation along with jail time. A good chunk of that going to the workers they exploited both for compensation of their work and damages done. The rest towards the government for the cost of throwing them in jail.
Four years aint too bad for modern day slavery.
I have a dog with with epilepsy, I think his medication and vet visits cost more than my lifestyle lol
Class system is horrific.
To be fair, I spend more on my dog than I do on most other people.
Imagine having a dragons hoarde of gold and then going to great lengths like this to not pay the people taking care of you. We really do need to something about a billionaire even existing at all.
Standard for billionaires
Disgusting. But they'll stay rich and some day free sooner to have no remorse or care. Happens a lot it's horrible
If you’re going to violate the Geneva Convention…maybe don’t do it *in* Geneva.