An Inconvenient Truth
by Samantha Catanese
December 2006
Although in America the Civil Rights movement has come to a close and traces of slavery haven’t been seen in a number of years there are signs and realizations of slavery in other parts of the world, and not only are adults subjected into these conditions but more commonly seen is children being sold into the cycles of slavery. In many countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa there are millions of child slaves being bought and sold to be put to work in many different ways. Cocoa plantations, house servants, and prostitution are three of the major fields in which children will be sold into. Boys are usually sent to Cocoa plantations to work in the field; many who have been kidnapped or taken from their families. House servants are the most common and children slaves are subjected to immoral and practically unlivable conditions. Girls are the only children that will get sold into prostitution and are often sold for as little as a couple dollars to each of their buyers. Child labor, although minimized in the eyes of Americans, is very real to millions of other people in countries a lot less fortunate than America.
Many companies such as Hershey, M&M/Mars, and other chocolate producers pay minimal fees for the cocoa they purchase and then later sell it for a remarkable mark up price.” Under these circumstances the owners of these cocoa plantations in West Africa and Cote d’Ivoire are forced to use slave labor as a way to harvest and maintain their crops”. Some of the chocolate food and beverages we consume on a regular basis is the product of child slave labor. The slaves are beaten by the overseer, not fed properly, work long hours, are locked up in a slave barracks at night, and often killed if they try to escape. Cote d’Ivoire, the world’s major supplier of cocoa, is said to have over 15,000 children in slavery working on the plantations.
“In June 2001, the ILO also reported that trafficked child labor was used in cocoa production in West Africa. Media reports have unveiled stories about boys tricked or sold into slavery, some as young as nine years old, to work on cocoa plantations in Cote d'Ivoire. ILRF has verified these reports through our own independent investigations conducted in 2002 and 2003, and has interviewed children who have escaped from the cocoa plantations.”
There have been some actions taken to better the situation at hand concerning child labor in cocoa plantations but it has not been effective enough to say that there aren’t any slaves or even that there are significantly fewer slaves. Manufacturers count on these children to do the work they aren’t willing to pay people to do. To hire workers to fulfill these jobs would cost manufacturers an immense amount of money and the money they would be bringing from the sold cocoa would hardly compensate for the money spent on workers they would need to do these jobs. The conditions they provide for these children are of minimal coast and because of their living conditions they are always on the plantation so they are readily available whenever needed. The convenience of children slaves and the practically nonexistent wages are appealing to the eye of the manufacturer and is a deal one would never pass up.
Domestic servants have been something that has been around for hundreds of years and was, at many points in time, very common. Still today you will see live-in help attending to families which come from much wealth. The difference between the live-in help people are familiar with seeing in America and the live-in help of places like Haiti are that Haiti’s live-in help is not paid and treated brutally. Children of ages as little as eight or nine years old are being taken from families and sold into slavery to tend to the needs of other people. Many families are tricked into selling their kids into slavery by being promised money in return of their child’s work or that their children will be sent to school to receive an education while working for the family but, for the most part this never happens. The children in these domestic slave situations are beaten by the masters of the house and are often forced to sleep on the floor or outside. Long work days, and unreasonable tasks are asked of these young children and they are left with no or little contact with their family. No money is given to the children and all luxuries even some necessities are stripped away from them. The money that is sent to their parents is extremely low and basically unhelpful. Salani Radnayaka, a ten year old girl was sold into domestic slavery and treated poorly by the family was working for told human right about how she was treated when she experienced slavery:
"I work in a house that has five family members. I’m the only servant. I’m very busy all day working, washing, cleaning and preparing food. The children in the family go to school, but I don’t get to go. They can also watch television, but I’m not allowed. I’m not allowed to play with the children. I’m always working. I sleep on the floor in the dining room. I’ve never been home to visit since beginning this work. My parents came to visit me twice, and collected some money from the family, but I don’t know how much." Prostitution is also another serious problem faced in the world of slavery. Money is promised to the families of the girls that are sold to wanting men, but in reality little to no money is sent to the families and absolutely none of the money is given to the girls. Many of these girls are kidnapped and families are broken up. The girls are transported illegally through different countries to places as far and Europe. Once arriving at the final destination for that particular girl she has no say in the life she is about to lead. To have these young girls be more willing to do what they are being put up to do it is often they are given drugs to loosen them up and make them more comfortable with what they are going to be doing with these men that pay to take them away with them for the time being. According to a study by the government of Thailand; “Child prostitution is a growing problem worldwide. In Asia alone, according to experts on the subject, more than one million young boys and girls are engaged in commercial sexual activity. And indications are that in every part of the world the number of children being harmed in this way is growing. Child prostitutes are found in virtually every country, including the United States, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Japan. There is an apparent increasing demand, globally; part of it fed by the fear of AIDS and the naive belief that younger sex partners are free of disease.”
Poverty is probably the most important factor contributing to the growth of child prostitution. Children offer themselves or, in some cases, are sold for sex in return for money. In developing countries particularly, the lack of economic opportunities, in rural areas, combined with rising expectations and the desire to acquire modern goods, contributes to the potential for families to sell or for children to voluntarily go in to prostitution.
In the section of the world that slavery is causing the biggest problem at this point in time it is noted that a large percentage of the wealth of these particular countries is owned by one percent of the population. One percent of all of the people in countries such as Haiti, where slavery is growing out of control, is controlling only slightly fewer than 50% of all of that countries wealth. With such a big percentage of the wealth owned by such a small percentage of people leave a lot more people in a really low social category. Being that there are so many people that are unbearably poor they have to stoop down to certain levels to get by in their day to day life, such as sell their children of prostitution. Also, because of the huge difference in social classes the few people that have money in these countries have so much of it that they contain much power as well. With this power of wealth and comfortable living they can manipulate poor, malnourished people into given them, and doing for them what they want.
This growing epidemic of slavery is taking over a large part of the world. Asia, the Middle East, and Africa are all areas trafficking children in the slave trade. Sending these children to places as far as Europe to be used as a slave. Cocoa plantations, domestic servants, and prostitution being the three major problems children of that area have to deal with are uncontrollable. It is speculated about 27 million children are suffering slavery in this world and some of them never get out. The issue, although being recognized by certain organizations, is growing and consistent. More and more kids are being sold into slavery for barely anything at all and some of them are being killed by their overseers for making a mistake or not living up to the unreasonable expectations set for these uneducated children. The kids that are sold into slavery are unhealthy and deprived of every right they have as a human being to sleep under table, be abused, and taken complete advantage of. Americans may not see first hand or be completely aware of the issue at hand in the surrounding world, but in fact it is there and it’s serious. Child slavery is something that is overlooked every day, but in actuality its one of the most disturbing problems that should be addressed and controlled.
Sources Used:
http://www.edusolution.com/ourworld/africanslavery.htm.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/India3.htm.
http://www.thaiembdc.org/socials/childprs.htm.
http://www.coha.org/2006/09/14/haiti%e2%80%99s-dirty-little-secret-the-problem-of-child-slavery/.
Mariko Curran