{"id":30402,"date":"2024-08-23T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T08:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30402"},"modified":"2024-08-22T17:21:35","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T17:21:35","slug":"the-dead-eye-and-the-deep-blue-sea-a-graphic-memoir-of-modern-slavery-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/08\/23\/the-dead-eye-and-the-deep-blue-sea-a-graphic-memoir-of-modern-slavery-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea – A Graphic Memoir of Modern Slavery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Vannak Anan Prum<\/strong>, told to Ben & Jocelyn Pederick<\/strong> and translated by Lim Sophorn<\/strong> (Seven Stories Press)
\nISBN: 978-1-6098-0602-6 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book made me furiously angry, but that\u2019s good because it was supposed to. So as we reel at contemporary news headlines from locales as diverse as Saudi Arabian construction sites to Scottish fishing boats and UK care homes let\u2019s dedicate this International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition<\/strong> to ponder again how capitalism got us here and what we will do next…<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite years of shocking scoops, excellent expos\u00e9s and countless in-depth news reports, far too many first world citizens seem – or choose to be – blissfully unaware that human slavery still thrives.<\/p>\n

In fact, the commercial practise of organised enforced and unpaid labour props up a vast number of businesses and industries, from migrants and homeless people used as domestic beasts of burden to gangs masquerading as service, telemarketing, construction or hospitality companies using shady contracts and extortion to man their enterprises. Young hopefuls are trafficked into a global sex market and entire village populations are captured or conned and compelled to till fields or man fishing boats for \u201centrepreneurs\u201d no better than racketeers.<\/p>\n

At the root of all this appalling exploitation and upheaval is one unchanging factor: a desperate need by the downtrodden to escape overwhelming poverty.<\/p>\n

This breathtakingly low key, matter-of-fact tale is the testimony in cartoon form of Cambodian Vannak Anan Prum<\/em> who went looking for work to pay for his pregnant wife\u2019s medical care and was gone for years…<\/p>\n

Bracketed by a fact-filled and frankly nightmare-inducing Foreword<\/em> from activist and cartoon journalist Anne Elizabeth Moore (Unmarketable<\/strong>, Body Horror<\/strong>, Threadbare: Clothes, Sex, and Trafficking<\/strong>), an equally sobering Introduction<\/em> by Minky Worden – Director of Global Initiatives for Human Rights Watch – and a laudatory appreciation and call to arms by Kevin Bales (Professor of Contemporary Slavery and Research Director at the Rights Lab: University of Nottingham) in his Afterword<\/em>, a compelling human-scaled odyssey unfolds in these pages.<\/p>\n

Rendered with the gently seductive warmth and deceptively comfortable lushness of a Ladybird<\/strong> early reader book, this saga of endurance and survival against the cruellest of fates begins with a \u2018Prologue\u2019<\/em> as a stranger enters a Cambodian village…<\/p>\n

Vannak Anan Prum started life \u2018Drawing in the Dirt\u2019<\/em>. He had been born the year the Vietnamese beat the Khmer Rouge, but his early life was still one of hardship, privation and family abuse. Barely more than a boy, he fled his home seeking \u2018Adventure\u2019<\/em>, becoming first a soldier, then a monk and finally an artisan sculptor toiling in a workshop making tourist trinkets and statues. His constant hunt for work led him to farming where he met the girl who became \u2018My Wife\u2019<\/em>. When she fell pregnant, he had to make more money to pay for her hospital care, so with village friend Rus<\/em> Vannak followed a promising lead to Thailand and contacted \u2018Moto & the Middleman\u2019<\/em>. After helping them in \u2018Crossing the Border\u2019<\/em> their new friends soon changed from chummy helpers to sinister guards…<\/p>\n

Apparently, the great secret to successful slave-taking is convincing victims that the police, army and authorities are ruthless and will punish harshly undocumented illegals and economic migrants: constantly dangling hope of good pay and promises of eventual freedom to keep their dupes quiescent. For Vannak and Rus \u2018The Writing on the Wall\u2019<\/em> was a clear but anticlimactic moment and – after relatively painless incarceration – they were shipped onto facilities ship \u2018The Took Tho\u2019<\/em>. This seedy vessel serviced a vast fleet of illegal fishing boats, pirating catches in other nations\u2019 waters and manned by hundreds of men who only wanted to better themselves. Most never saw land again once they were taken…<\/p>\n

One such was \u2018The Old Man\u2019<\/em> whose fate led to Vannak being transferred to fishing factory ship \u2018The Took Oh\u2019<\/em>. Eventually, crushing routine took hold, only barely broken by what happens to \u2018Rus\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

\u2018Life on the Boat\u2019<\/em> ruled Vannak\u2019s world and any number of candidates for \u2018The Deadliest Job\u2019<\/em> were gratefully handled before the new man\u2019s status was slightly elevated. After he started idly tattooing himself with makeshift tools, his \u2018Writing on the Skin\u2019<\/em> led to the others wanting such decoration – and paying him for it. His artistic gifts were useless when the ship was chased by the Indonesian navy, resulting in \u2018Fire at Sea\u2019 <\/em>and Vannak being traded to \u2018The New Boat\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Fresh horrors awaited there: murder, beatings and the shocking fate of \u2018Two Guys\u2019<\/em> from Thailand, but there were also more serene moments with \u2018My Friend K\u2019Nack\u2019<\/em>. Adding to alternating dire tedium and frantic hardship, \u2018Storms at Sea\u2019<\/em> and consequent becalmed periods made \u2018Days Stretch Out\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

At last, after the craft unexpectedly neared land, a chance came for \u2018Escape\u2019<\/em>. With Thai compatriot Chaya<\/em>, Vannak chanced everything on \u2018The Swim\u2019<\/em> to an unknown jungle beach and kept going. Once again hope quickly gave way to despair. In \u2018The Monkeys and the Man Waiting for Us\u2019<\/em> an idyllic pause and aid of helpful locals brought the escapees to \u2018Police and the Chinese Man\u2019<\/em>… who promptly sold them both to plantation owner \u2018Crazy Boss\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

More months of slavery in what eventually turned out to be Malaysia followed, but again Vannak\u2019s artistic skills proved invaluable and he made enough to obtain \u2018The Phone\u2019<\/em>. Contact with the outside world made, he prepared for rescue, but when drunken partying dissolved into \u2018The Fight\u2019<\/em> Vannak and \u201cco-worker\u201d Theara<\/em> were wounded by machetes and dumped into the custody of the local cops. At least they (grudgingly) got them to \u2018Hospital\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where the real injustices started piling up as the victims suffered \u2018Yo-Yo Justice\u2019<\/em>. Although Theara was soon reclaimed by his family, illegal worker Vannak was arrested. However, in \u2018Prison\u2019<\/em> he was interviewed by German NGO worker Manfred Hornung<\/em> who began the complex and convoluted process of freeing the abducted and enslaved artist.<\/p>\n

Sadly, that took months, and was perpetually hampered by police interference and the revelation of just who – and how prestigious and influential – Crazy Boss was…<\/p>\n

It was still a long, torturous ordeal before the LICADHO (Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights) could ferry the relieved and apprehensive Vannak \u2018Home\u2019<\/em> again…<\/p>\n

This crushingly sedate, oppressively action-deprived story is an astounding and remarkable testament to sheer will-to-survive, but by no measure does it lack power, merit or moment. Life simply isn\u2019t a 3-act summer blockbuster with exploding helicopters, sexy hotties and Mikado<\/strong>-esque just deserts doled out to the apparently endless chain of truly evil, corrupt bastards entrenched at every stage of this century\u2019s slavery system, all with hands out and blind eyes turned to the plight of those they\u2019re supposed to protect and serve.<\/p>\n

In actual fact, the only thing they really fear is exposure, and that began once Vannak – still desperately seeking a means to earn a living – started drawing his five years a slave: awful life-changing experiences gathered in these strips. The comics were seen by filmmakers Ben & Jocelyn Pederick and one of the results and repercussions was this book…<\/p>\n

As seen in \u2018Epilogue\u2019<\/em>, there is more to come…<\/p>\n

The almost incomprehensible story of a quietly indomitable man who turned survival into a waiting game and patience into his weapon, The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea<\/strong> is a book everyone should read and every exploiter should dread.
\nText and images \u00a9 2018 Vannak Anan Prum. Foreword<\/em> \u00a9 2018 Anne Elizabeth Moore. Introduction<\/em> \u00a9 2018 Minky Worden. Afterword<\/em> \u00a9 2018 Kevin Bales. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Vannak Anan Prum, told to Ben & Jocelyn Pederick and translated by Lim Sophorn (Seven Stories Press) ISBN: 978-1-6098-0602-6 (HB\/Digital edition) This book made me furiously angry, but that\u2019s good because it was supposed to. So as we reel at contemporary news headlines from locales as diverse as Saudi Arabian construction sites to Scottish … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea – A Graphic Memoir of Modern Slavery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[75,104,170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-comics","category-graphic-autobiography","category-non-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Um","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30404,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30402\/revisions\/30404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}