One of the renowned orators in our time, Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States; and one of my favourite personalities. 

Today, I am going to write my observations on the speech delivered by the President at the Clinton Global Initiative on 25th September 2012. I chose this exact speech as it was on human trafficking, one of the present-day concerns of the modern world.  

In his speech when Obama began talking about human trafficking, he started with this line, “I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name – modern slavery”. I completely agree with this term ‘modern slavery’. Human trafficking is nothing but slavery which is supposed to be barbaric, a shame of past. But the tragedy is, in this civilized era slavery also exists. When frauding with a man with the hope of a better life by taking his documents and forced to work endless hours is slavery. When kidnaping a teenage girl or frauding a girl with a big dream and force her to work in a brothel is slavery. Even in the worst case, that girl was sold out by her family. When a kid is kidnapped and forced to inhumane work at a very young age is slavery. All these things are against humanity and should not happen in any civilized society.

Mr. Obama during his remarkable speech at “2012 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting”

Mr. Obama, in his talk, stated the following:

“Our fight against human trafficking is one of the great human rights causes of our time, and the United States will continue to lead it — in partnership with you. The change we seek will not come easy, but we can draw strength from the movements of the past. For we know that every life saved — in the words of that great Proclamation — is ‘an act of justice’; worthy of ‘the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God’.”

In his speech, he thanked the people who are involved in this fight against human trafficking and made it clear that the United States will continue to be a leader in this global movement. He urged every citizen to learn more by going to the website SlaveryFootprint.org, by speaking up, by standing up against this barbaric practice. He made sure that the United States will put predators associated with human trafficking to “where they belong- behind bars”. 

As usual, his speech ended with the hope for a better world. In the talk, he directly addressed to the cruelness of human trafficking without beating around the bush, and it that what will be the United States stand in this fight. Barack Obama is one of the most outstanding leaders, and I want to conclude my analysis with a few of his legendary words he mentioned on UN General Assembly 2014:

“We choose hope over fear. We see the future not as something out of our control, but as something we can shape for the better through concerted and collective effort. We reject fatalism or cynicism when it comes to human affairs; we choose to work for the world as it should be, as our children deserve it to be.”