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Author Topic: How your chocolate may be tainted by child slavery  (Read 1909 times)
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"Sixhits"
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« on: April 27, 2004, 06:40:29 pm »
"There may be a hidden ingredient in the chocolate cake you baked, the candy bars your children sold for their school fund-raiser or that fudge ripple ice cream cone you enjoyed on Saturday afternoon.

Slave labor.

...

The lucky slaves live on corn paste and bananas. The unlucky ones are whipped, beaten and broken like horses to harvest the almond-sized beans that are made into chocolate treats for more fortunate children in Europe and America."


http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/2060179.htm

The glutonously eye catching title attracted me, the terrible story made me stay.
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« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2004, 07:35:20 pm »
Not that slavery isn't terrible, but I hate the typical liberal (bleeding heart) angle of this story.

They talk about how many tons of chocolate are used and name some companies so you can write nasty letters, but they don't talk about how many farms actually use slave labor.  Just that some exist.  

I really like more factual and less emotional reporting.  And by factual I don't mean telling us about being given cans to urinate in, or the fermentation process of cocoa beans, but what are the laws in the Ivory Coast regarding this?  Would these kids starve on the streets otherwise / what were their conditions before hand? What percentage of farms there have these practices? How much of the GNP does cocoa exports make up (so if we did write to the companies, and they did boycott Ivory Coast cocoa beans, would we completely fuck over another third world country)?

This to me falls under the category of irresponsible journalism.  Playing on emotions to get people worked up, without enough of the important facts behind it.
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"Sixhits"
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« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2004, 07:48:12 pm »
All that's well and good, but the thing I most care about are the little kids getting whipped so I can have my hot coco.
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« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2004, 08:01:40 pm »
Quote from: "Sixhits" on April 27, 2004, 07:48:12 pm
All that's well and good, but the thing I most care about are the little kids getting whipped so I can have my hot coco.

If you feel so strongly about it, then stop drinking coco, and stop eating chocolate.

That will leave more chocolate for me and Bucc.  Smiley

(Man, I thought I would leave my post count on 800 for a while, but oh well.)
« Last Edit: April 27, 2004, 08:02:34 pm by BTs_GhostSniper » Logged
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« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2004, 08:37:08 pm »
I agree with bucc.

The problem we have here is more than that child labor exists in these places, it is a lack of protection of contracts and property.

The article claims the boy was promised 150 dollars a year (good pay in the Ivory Coast) and a bicycle if he worked on that farm. Without rights to protect him from physical abuse and a legal recourse to get his pay (after all, the west hates child labor, so I would think the Ivory Coast doesn't acknowledge its existence in their laws) what does a child do? Most rural areas in africa are ruled by the sword, no matter what "form of government" exists in the cities.

It also cannot be forgotten that the root cause of child labor continues to be extremely inadequate family income. Taking these jobs away could very well just, as bucc said, fuck over another third world country.


See the following article:
http://www.techcentralstation.com/042903C.html
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« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2004, 09:03:53 pm »
Child slavery makes the chocolate taste extra special. Sad, but true.
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« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2004, 09:19:51 pm »
Quote from: Mr.Mellow on April 27, 2004, 09:03:53 pm
Child slavery makes the chocolate taste extra special. Sad, but true.

Wow, I don't believe I would have said that.

lol
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« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2004, 10:32:59 pm »
i knew those crack-peddlers were up to no good.
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« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2004, 10:33:35 pm »
Man, if you look on the "made in ......" tags on anything you buy, be sure to not buy it if it is from Asia, South America or Africa.  The basis of the work in these countries by our standards is child labor.  I know not all of the countries in this region, it would take me too long to list the ones that do and do not.

But basically the point it, most of the products you get are manufactured over there because the labor is cheap.  In turn the workforce (which by our standards is highly composed of children), doesn't get payed well, work in good conditions and dies at early ages.
Recent caught violators include: Nike, Reebok, Hanes and just about every food company with overseas companies.

So either wear a leaf and eat off your own farm, or just start paying for the products made in modern countries.

I think most of us wouldn't
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"Sixhits"
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« Reply #9 on: April 28, 2004, 02:17:54 am »
Man, you guys can be a cynical bunch.
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« Reply #10 on: April 28, 2004, 04:33:22 am »
Well duh.
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