Next time you bite into a chocolate bar…
There are 27 million people living in slavery today, and its so much worse now than its even been.
In the Ivory Cost, which produces half of the world’s coco, the UN has uncovered numerous farms on which slave labour exists. Watchdog agencies based in the area, suspect that approximately 90% of the coco farms in Cote d’lovoire use slave labour. Young boys, from rural neighbouring countries such as Mali, are kidnapped from their villages or seduced with promises of a better life. They are loaded like cattle into trucks and driven hundreds of kilometres across the country until they don’t know where they are. When they arrive at the farm it is customary for them to be beaten regularly for the first few weeks in order to “smoothen” them, ie. Break their spirit so they do not rebel. Then they are then put to work. They are expected to work as long as there is day light. They are not given a rest, they are not given water. If they try to escape, they are beaten, if they do not work hard enough, they are beaten, if they ask for money for the work they have done, they are beaten. Certain farms have institutionalised beatings and set specific times in the day for beatings to take place.
These beatings are so severe that the slaves cannot work for a few days after whilst they recover. When their wounds start to heal, they are back to work and forced to work extra to make up for their ‘time off’.
After he was freed from slavery by an NGO, one boy was asked if he knew what the purpose of his work had been. He said no. When he was told that he had been farming an ingredient used to make chocolate, a luxury food product enjoyed by people all over the world, he was again asked, what he would say to the people who ate chocolate.
“If I had to say something, it would not be nice words. They enjoyed something I suffered to make. I worked hard for them but saw no benefit. They are eating my flesh”
So what can be done about it? Fair trade is an organisation which recognised the important role that consumers could play to improve the situation for producers. By buying direct from farmers at better prices, and thereby ensuring that labour and conditions are of a decent basic standard, buying Fairtrade really is the only ethical choice. We have to make it clear to the multinationals, that slavery is too high a price to pay for cheap goods!
However, even if this wasn’t an option, would you honestly be able to sleep at night knowing that your money has paid for children north of us to be worked to death?
Think about it!
There are 27 million people living in slavery today, and its so much worse now than its even been.
In the Ivory Cost, which produces half of the world’s coco, the UN has uncovered numerous farms on which slave labour exists. Watchdog agencies based in the area, suspect that approximately 90% of the coco farms in Cote d’lovoire use slave labour. Young boys, from rural neighbouring countries such as Mali, are kidnapped from their villages or seduced with promises of a better life. They are loaded like cattle into trucks and driven hundreds of kilometres across the country until they don’t know where they are. When they arrive at the farm it is customary for them to be beaten regularly for the first few weeks in order to “smoothen” them, ie. Break their spirit so they do not rebel. Then they are then put to work. They are expected to work as long as there is day light. They are not given a rest, they are not given water. If they try to escape, they are beaten, if they do not work hard enough, they are beaten, if they ask for money for the work they have done, they are beaten. Certain farms have institutionalised beatings and set specific times in the day for beatings to take place.
These beatings are so severe that the slaves cannot work for a few days after whilst they recover. When their wounds start to heal, they are back to work and forced to work extra to make up for their ‘time off’.
After he was freed from slavery by an NGO, one boy was asked if he knew what the purpose of his work had been. He said no. When he was told that he had been farming an ingredient used to make chocolate, a luxury food product enjoyed by people all over the world, he was again asked, what he would say to the people who ate chocolate.
“If I had to say something, it would not be nice words. They enjoyed something I suffered to make. I worked hard for them but saw no benefit. They are eating my flesh”
So what can be done about it? Fair trade is an organisation which recognised the important role that consumers could play to improve the situation for producers. By buying direct from farmers at better prices, and thereby ensuring that labour and conditions are of a decent basic standard, buying Fairtrade really is the only ethical choice. We have to make it clear to the multinationals, that slavery is too high a price to pay for cheap goods!
However, even if this wasn’t an option, would you honestly be able to sleep at night knowing that your money has paid for children north of us to be worked to death?
Think about it!
1 comment:
Brillant Maverick-lets begin changing the world!
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