Background of Slavery in Australia

Slavery is a condition whereby a nation or community claim to own other people; they control how other people live and direct what they do in their everyday life. The act of slavery was prevalent in the decade years where the developed nations could ferry the less fortunate from other countries and force them to provide labor and other services to that nation. In return, the developed country could continue growing through the constant supply of labor in their industries. However, the states did not consider the working condition of these people they underwent a high level of mistreatment including physical and emotional torture. When many people attained some degree of education, they started campaigning against slavery.

Consequently, some countries such as Australia have continued to promote slavery in their companies with the aim of making higher profits. Various media stations have reported that large companies in Australia employ slavery in their supply chain. The migrants face some challenges such as language, cultural barriers and limited knowledge of workplace laws. The constant importation of slaves in Australia forced the Australian Senate to pass modern slavery bill on 29th November 2018. This assignment aims to identify five Catholic social thought principles that relate to the case of Australian case, analyze the policies about the Australian case, explain how the concept of self and community are interrelated and lastly talk about issues relating to the dignity of human person and realization of the common good.

The Catholic Social Thoughts provides primary directives on how human beings should leave with each other (Beauchamp and Heron, 2017: p.23). Considering the case of Australian companies that ferrying migrants to work in the companies with the aim to increase their profits. However, these migrants undergo several challenges, and that is against the Catholic Social Principles. The following are five central Catholic Teachings that relates to the case; respecting the poor and vulnerable, common good principle, rights and responsibilities, the dignity of human being and the role of the subsidiary and the government.

Role of the government and subsidiary

The authority of the nation has a critical role to bring back the moral in the society. In many instances, the citizens cannot fight the companies or people who promote slavery. The less fortunate in the community depend on the government to ensure they enjoy their human rights and human dignity (Sison, Ferrero and Guitián, 2016: p.510). For instance, considering the case in Australia members of parliament have considered the mistreatment young people, women and men are going through in various companies, they have passed a law to curb the ongoing slavery.

Catholic Social Thought Principles

In this teaching, the life of a human being is always sacred, and everyone deserves respect. When one is mistreating an individual, he or she is disobeying God because the Almighty made a human being in His own image and likeness. For example, when the companies are using migrants who undergo difficulties like the language barrier, it is against the Catholic teachings.

One of the factors that determine the society’s commitment to God’s word is the way it treats the less fortunate the society. Treating the poor with respect is one of the means of achieving the common good of the community (Sullivan, 2017: p.23). For instance, the Australian community cannot be healthy when they are importing slaves and pushing them to work in harsh conditions. They are powerless and may not be able to protect themselves.

In this principle, it elaborates that human beings realize their rights and dignity when they relate with others. Besides that, policies and laws that the authority come up with directly affect the members of the society. For instance, if the administration had permitted the Australian companies to import people and exploit them in the companies, the action directly affects the members of the society (Etzioni, 2014: p.607). When the nation wants to promote the common good, it is essential for people to encourage love to each other.

The Catholic Principles explains that every member of the society has fundamental rights and duties. It is good to promote human decency by helping the needy people by providing food and shelter instead of exploiting the poor people to benefit themselves (Psychopedis and Bonefeld,2017: p.15).

The principles of Catholic teachings explain the interrelationship between the self and the community. The idea of Ubuntu refers to the state of existing in the same society. It shows that an individual is a way he or she is because the way they all are in that society.  When a child is born in a community, the child knows nothing, however, as time goes the child will continue what is going around the environment (Nicholas, 2015: p.4). The mother, friends, other relatives, and the society at large influences the way the child behaves. Whatever the child sees a turn to influence his or her behavior. From that perspective, it is essential for everybody to treat other individuals with a sense of human dignity. Some children have bad behavior because of what they had passed through while they were young. For example, a child who had passed through domestic violence may have a negative attitude towards one of the parents (Tawney,2017: p.90). Consequently, some children extend the hatred to a school whereby they hate the teachers and fellow students because they started it while at home.

How Australian Policies Address the Issue

God created a human being in His own image and likeness. The characteristic of God’s image is what differs human nature with other animals. Thus, there are some treatments that human being does not deserve. The Catholic Social Thoughts provides the teachings that guide human being on how they should relate with each other. Human dignity as one of the principles informs people to have moral behavior. Slavery is not an ethical behavior in society (Habermas, 2018: p.60). The slaves undergo several sufferings. For example, the case of the Australian companies, the slaves lack knowledge about the rules of labor in Australia, apart from that there are also language barriers between these immigrants and the citizens of Australia. Such action is not according to human dignity. The fact that everybody was created by God, it is unfair to treat some like animals from another universe (Brady, 2017: p.34). It is morally upright to help other people where they have weakness instead of exploiting their condition.

When it comes to the issue of the common good, members of the society should uplift each other instead of exploiting other people for their own benefit. From the Catholic Social Thoughts, human dignity goes hand in hand with the principle of the common good. When members of a given society ensure human dignity, they are at a point of achieving the common good (Massaro, 2015: p.45). The common good is a condition where what one is doing benefit all people in that society. For example, the social, political and economic institutions in the nation should come up with policies that benefit everyone without discrimination. In such a situation, they would not do something which is immoral hence everyone benefits in that community.  

References

Beauchamp, A. and Heron, J., 2017. Economic Rights in Catholic Social Teaching. Vol.2 pp.23-78

Brady, B.V., 2017. Essential Catholic Social Thought 2nd edition. Orbis Books.Vol.1 pp.90-125

Etzioni, A., 2014. Common good. The encyclopedia of political thought, pp.603-610.

Habermas, J., 2018. The concept of human dignity and the realistic utopia of human rights. In Human Dignity (pp. 52-70). Routledge.

Massaro, T., 2015. Living justice: Catholic social teaching in action. Rowman & Littlefield. Vol.3 pp.34-97

Nicholas, J.L., 2015. The Common Good, Rights, and Catholic Social Thought: Prolegomena to Any Future Account of Common Goods. Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics, 5(1), p.4.

Psychopedis, K. and Bonefeld, W., 2017. Human dignity: social autonomy and the critique of capitalism. In Human Dignity (pp. 9-18). Routledge.

Sison, A.J.G., Ferrero, I. and Guitián, G., 2016. Human dignity and the dignity of work: Insights from Catholic social teaching. Business Ethics Quarterly, 26(4), pp.503-528.

Sullivan, S.C., 2017. Catholic Social Teaching: Principles and Applications. Vol.2 pp.56-234

Tawney, R.H., 2017. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. Routledge. Vol.3 pp.23-89