Paradoxes of Faith

The New York Times is currently running a great article on the commodification of children in West Africa.

Here are a few snippets:

Mr. Takyi’s boys — conscripts in a miniature labor camp, deprived of schooling, basic necessities and freedom — are part of a vast traffic in children that supports West and Central African fisheries, quarries, cocoa and rice plantations and street markets. The girls are domestic servants, bread bakers, prostitutes. The boys are field workers, cart pushers, scavengers in abandoned gem and gold mines.

A 2002 study supervised by the labor organization estimated that nearly 12,000 trafficked children toiled in the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast alone. The children, who had no relatives in the area, cleared fields with machetes, applied pesticides and sliced open cocoa pods for beans.

“A child does not consent,” he said. “The loss of choice, the deception, the use of frauds, the keeping of someone at work with little or no pay, the threats if they leave — it is slavery.”

Now, I don’t mean to get all Kanye West on you, but it begs the question:

**Do you know where your diamonds come from? Are they still your best friend?

**How about your chocolate? Still an aphrodisiac? Comfort food? Dessert of choice?

Perhaps it’s time we started asking better questions and seeking more effective answers.

See Free the Slaves as to how you can get more involved.