So this post is going to be a bit depressing, so if you're in a good mood today, it'd be best if you didn't read further.
I was watching Nightline on ABC late last night and the story was so sad I started to cry in bed. The segment was based on a new documentary coming out about illegal child labor in other countries as well as in Texas. The only part I caught (because I was too upset to watch the rest) was about Kenyan children picking coffee berries for us greedy consuming Americans. The kids were too poor to go to school (which only would have cost $13), so their parents sent them to these coffee farms. They work all day and only make 6 cents. The branches of the coffee plants scratch the children and the pesticides covering the plants thus infect the kids' wounds. One kid said that it felt like someone was pouring boiling water over his face, arms, and hands every day. HOW AWFUL!!! I feel like a terrible human being today. And I think back to yesterday morning when there was a line out the door for Starbucks. How dependent on coffee have we become (second highest imported good after oil) that we can ignore these millions of tortured Kenyan children for our $3.00 cup of java? So starting today I'm going on strike against coffee that does not have the "Fair Trade" sticker on it (Fair Trade means the coffee is from farms that pay their workers the right amount).
And then in Texas (saw the preview before the commercial break), thousands of immigrant children are also pulled out of school to work 10 hrs a day, 7 days a week picking vegetables. I think they get something like a penny per pound of vegetables. So the vegetables I eat everyday could have been picked through the sweat and tears of a 10 yr old mexican child. :*(
There's also a website where you can find out more about helping out to stop this tragedy and the documentary: www.stolenchildhoods.org.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
This is really sad. I wish there something else to say about it.
un-be-f*in-leaveable! don't know why i continue to be surprised when i hear stuff like this. i aways feel so helpless when i hear stuff like this....think i'll join you in your ban.
i still can't believe there is someting called a coffee berry, really? really? no, really?
look at how uninsightful and shallow my post is... sorry not up much for saving the world today, howabout the world saves me? yeah, what has the world done for me lately ooo ooo oooo yeah!
Thanks, KA! :) G, I don't know what exactly a coffee berry is, maybe it WAS just coffee beans, but then would they really be picking those right off of the trees? Maybe they dry the berries and they become bean-like? No idea. It was hard to process through the tears. ;)
Post a Comment