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The abolition of slavery in America
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What effects does the use of child labour in the chocolate industry have on children and their families
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We may think of chocolates as God's gift to humanity as they may soothes all our problems and suffering. But, have you ever wonder that these chocolates – sweet, good and pleasurable as it may, have dark sides?. Child Labor has been prevalent in the chocolate industry for decades although efforts have been made to eradicate it but it seems that it is all in vain. But how does philosophies and ethics explain these situations?. Our society is a slave-master world. Hegel's Slave-Master dialectic describes the self conscious as two distinct thing. They will fight and the winner will be the master and the loser will be the slave. Just like the situation of children in Africa especially in Côte d'Ivoire which is the number one producer of cocoa
The videos provided for this subject builds a great understanding on what happens behind the scenes and how the production cycle of chocolates turns deadly for few. The chocolate industry is being accused having legit involvement in human trafficking. The dark side of chocolate is all about big industries getting their coco from South America and Africa industries. However, it is an indirect involvement of Hersheys and all other gigantic brands in trafficking (Child Slavery and the Chocolate Factory, 2007).
Hershey, Cocoa, and Child Labor. An everyday person, when asked to describe chocolate, would probably start by calling it "magic." The presence of chocolate in the everyday American life is an experience sought after, craved for, and bought for under two dollars at the corner convenience store. Indeed, chocolate is an edible ecstasy that is put in everything: coffee, ice cream, cereal, even the spicy sauce for Mexican mole. Chocolate has a cultural presence like no other food commodity; it is brought back to loved ones from the faraway places of Switzerland and Germany, it is given as a symbol of love, and moreover, it is the first thing everyone instinctually goes too when that love does not work out.
In 1806, nearly two hundred years before Fukuyama’s audacious historical stance, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel declared the end of history. Hegel bases his claim in that the Napoleonic Code, a preliminary, yet revolutionary replacement of previous feudal laws, was being promulgated and slowly implemented throughout Napoleon’s empire . Hegel believes, however, that the adoption of a particular code or set of standards for a civil society, like the Napoleonic Code or the Constitution of the United States, is stipulated on the rational evolution or progression of peoples towards the realization that they are free or equal. In short, a constitution that guarantees your freedom means nothing to those who do not possess the self-consciousness
The children involved with the Hershey Chocolate Company face horrible hard labor. Children chosen to work for Hershey are stolen or purchased from their parents and then sent to the Ivory Coast. Most will never see their families again. In an investigative report by the BBC, they found out that hundreds of thousands of children sold by their parents, sometimes believing that their son or daughter will have a chance for a better life. Most of these children in between the ages of 11 to 16. They work for 80 to 100 and a great quantity of them do not paid. The children wor...
Chanthavong, Samlanchith. "Chocolate and Slavery: Child Labor in Cote d'Ivoire." TED Case Studies 1 (2002): 1-14. American University. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. < http://elib.unikom.ac.id/files/disk1/476/jbptunikompp-gdl-gunardiend-23777-9-chocolat-y.pdf>
A famed philosopher, Hegel, emphasizes that self-consciousness is attained by being recognized by another conscious being. When these two beings collide, one will be a Master and the other would be a Bondsman, after fighting in a life-or-death struggle to prove dominance over the other. This relationship is said to be fluid. This idea can be found in Ellison’s the invisible man where he gives the story of himself relating to the black experience in the 1950s. Most importantly, when he fought a white man in the alley, and with the Light & Power Company.
“Love means generally the consciousness of my unity with an other, so that I am not isolated by myself, but rather gain my self-consciousness only by giving up my being-for-self (Fürsichseins) and by knowing myself in unity with the other and the other in unity with me…” (Williams, pp. 183-184)
Child labor is nothing but cheap labor. The big companies loved cheap labor because then they could make an item for not very much money, and make a huge profit margin. Fried continues to state how cheap the labor was, “One glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire ‘to keep the young imps inside.’ These were boys under 12 who carried loads of hot glass all night for a wage of 40 cents to $1.10 per night.” Unlike, children today who are in bed sleeping by 8 pm each night, these children had to stay up all night working to make just enough income for their families.
Child labor happens all around the globe. In the United States there were children at the age of 15 years and younger working in factories, machinery and more. In the U.S. children had to work at least 10 hours a day back in 1800s. There are many reasons why children are being exploited. First of all, nothing much seems to be happening to prevent it. Child labor must be eliminated as quickly as possible, before many more children get trapped, like the millions ...
Americans consume chocolate every day, we love it. It gives us a little morsel of happiness when we consume it. But what effects does it have on others when we consume it? Do other Americans know what went into making that fun size Snickers Bar? Most people don’t, in Africa children are kidnapped and smuggled across the continent to work as slaves on coca plantations. The children smuggled for slave work are as young as seven years old. Daily hundreds of children are trafficked to the Ivory Coast, which is a renowned area where most chocolate plantations are. It is sickening that children are taken away from their home to work on farms as slaves. Not living a fun and educated childhood, they are worked in unsafe and unethical environments.
According to Hegel, “the self conscious is itself and for itself” meaning that it has to come outside of itself, so that it can do two things. One is to cancel out the other otherness. The second is to try to become recognized. This recognition process is called Master and Servant self-conscious. The conflict between master and servant is one in which the historical themes such as dependence and independence are introduced. It sets up the realization of the self conscious through the recognition of and by another, through mutual recognition.
Instead of playing games with their friends, children in the Ivory Coast of Africa are kidnapped and forced into slavery, spending their childhood harvesting cocoa beans, the main ingredient found in chocolate. That 's right; your chocolate candy bar may have been made with child slave labor. Children in this region are kidnapped and forced to travel miles away from their villages. Most are under the false pretense that they will earn money; poverty is a big problem in this area. Once at the plantation, they are forced to endure an unimaginable amount of pain and suffering, working long hours and locked into shacks at night to prevent their escape. If they are courageous enough to attempt to return home, they are lucky to not be captured and murdered. A boy who escaped this tragedy in Africa was interviewed and had this to say about the consumers in America: “They enjoy something I suffered to make. I worked hard or them, but saw no benefit. They are eating my flesh." Outraged by this information, several California residents have decided to file a lawsuit against three of the top producers of chocolate in the United States: Hershey, Nestle, and Mars. This is not the first time that the chocolate industry has been accused of using child slave labor as a source of economic gain. In 2000, Hershey was investigated for using child slave labor to harvest their cocoa beans; they denied having knowledge of this and vowed to reduce the number of children used in slave labor world wide. In the past 15 years, they have dramatically decreased the number of children that are subjected to this act of violence. According to a report done by the Payson Center for International Development of Tulane University and sponsored by the U....
Ecuador is the biggest fine or flavor cocoa exporter of the world. Since chocolate is a billion dollar industry, one would think cocoa farmers would be benefit fairly. However, when the production chain is analyzed, one can find large differences between the working conditions of cocoa farmers and the chocolate factory employees. Still in the 21stcentury there exists a large amount of child labor in cocoa producing countries. Meanwhile in the chocolate factories (which are mainly located in developed countries), the transnational corporations boast about their compromise with ethics, particularly human rights and environmental protection.
In recent years, child labor in the chocolate industry has become a serious issue in terms of human rights violations and social justice (Clifford, 2012). According to the article, "Child labor and slavery in the chocolate industry" (2018), cocoa is one of the primary commodities exported in Western African and is an indispensable ingredient used for making chocolate. Over 70% of the cocoa in the world is supplied from Western African countries such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast. With the growth of the chocolate industry, the price of chocolate has become more and more competitive, and chocolate companies are constantly seeking for cheaper cocoa in order to maximize profits.
There are many myths and misunderstandings about chocolate. For example, chocolate is not addictive. Many people might consider themselves “chocoholics”, but the fact of the matter is that there is now actual chemical addiction. Researchers, instead, insist that chocolate cravings are stimulated by the “sensory properties”, such as the smell, taste and texture, of chocolate (Brody Pars. 26). In a study concerning the satisfaction of a chocolate craving, one group was given a milk chocolate bar, one group was given a white chocolate bar that contains no actual cocoa, one group was given a capsule of cocoa powder, a...