TresSugar

Child Slavery in the US? Wealthy Immigrants Bring "Hired" Help

LibertySugar — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:00:42 -0800

Well, this is just great. Behind the gated and planned communities of Southern California housewives aren't just employing children as drug dealers, they're smuggling children into the US to work.

As affluent immigrants move here from Africa, where the rich think nothing of employing children for little to no money, many bring children with them to employ for meager wages ($30-per-month meager). The US State Department found that in the past year, children from at least 10 African countries were sent to the US and Europe to work as maids.

To learn about one former child slave who found justice, if that's even possible, read more.

The family that brought Shyima over when she was 10 from Egypt was reported by a neighbor. After a long court battle - where the couple tried to claim her as their child - they pleaded guilty to forced labor and slavery. They were ordered to pay $76,000, which hardly seems like enough but is the amount she would have earned at minimum wage; sentenced to 22 months (wife) and three years (husband) in prison; and deported upon release. Shyima was adopted, finished high school, and at 19 now wants to become a police officer.

If it's possible to call Shyima lucky, it could be said. Because child slaves are cloaked behind the curtains of private homes, her case is an exception. Tasks like sorting laundry, taking out the garbage, and ironing shirts can easily be mistaken as chores, so nobody can even estimate how many children are enslaved. And since none of it is considered abusive (at least not physically), cases are rarely prosecuted.

People who keep child slaves not only see themselves as employers but also as benefactors, giving poor children opportunities. Sure, if you call 12-hour work days and no education in a nice American home an opportunity. And many in Africa, including Shyima's parents, do.

Source

PSAs as Music Videos: Good For Message, or the Band?

TresSugar — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:00:00 -0700

Stereogum says this antisex-trafficking PSA will do more for the band behind it, The Killers, than promote awareness of the crime. A collaboration between UNICEF, MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking), and the US Agency for International Development, the video began airing yesterday on MTV stations around the world. Guess MTV does play videos!

Set to the track "Goodnight, Travel Well," off The Killers' Day and Age album, the video is the second in a series of PSA music videos. The first, set to Radiohead's "All I Need," was for human trafficking and child labor. It maintained a clear message throughout by juxtaposing two boys' days - one going to school and coming home and the other working in a factory. The less-obvious "Goodnight, Travel Well," shows a young woman go from excited to reticent on a date several times until we see she's just returned from her forced-labor job as a sex worker. Check it out and tells us what you think. Effective or not?

All That Glitters Is Gold - and Is Mined by Kids in Africa

CitizenSugar — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:00:59 -0700

Africa: a continent of untold riches in gold and diamonds, contrasted with shocking poverty of citizens living on the surface just above the treasure trove. Veins of gold run through the earth demanding to be mined - a job dangerous enough for adults, but savagely brutal when you're four years old.

The AP conducted a yearlong study of six African gold mines and found more than 150 child miners to interview, tracking the gold from kid to ring. The United Nation's labor agency estimates that there are 100,000 to 250,000 child miners in West Africa alone. One of these, a 12-year-old miner (who is less than four feet tall) was lured to the trade after his village's only teacher left, and the global price of gold spiked. He and two friends hiked with their recruiter for 100 miles, to the mine where the boys live, sleeping on mattresses crammed between adults. It's not just boys lured into the trade; girls also start as young as four and can be working full-time by the age of 10.

To see how the children mine, read more.

Some boys squeeze down mine shafts as narrow as manholes that run 100 feet deep - and some get bags of dirt that men have mostly picked clean of gold, only crumbs remain. The boys pour mercury (the same substance that attacks the brain and can cause retardation and blindness) into their bare hands and rub it into the mud to coax the gold crumbs to stick.

After the treasure has changed hands up to the eventual gold dealers, it's far removed from the young sources. One gold merchant said when asked about child miners, "We don't live in the bush, so we have nothing to do with child labor. We just buy gold." The boys know the sweat value of the metal. The 12-year-old says, "If I have one wish, it's that I might someday have a little bit of money. Sometimes I dream that one day I'll own something made of gold."

The complication comes as it's near impossible to know which gold has been extracted from the earth by small hands - by the time it becomes jewelry, its provenance is all but mute.

Source

Got a Stop Watch? It Only Takes 10 Hours to Buy a Child Slave

LibertySugar — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:00:13 -0700

It takes just 10 hours for someone in New York City to travel to Haiti and buy a child. ABC News reporter Dan Harris found that out when he set out to test the ease of securing a child slave. For as little as $150 one trafficker guaranteed Harris a "trained" 11-year-old. Another child salesman asked $10,000 for a pretty 11-year-old, for which Harris could do whatever he wanted with the girl.

Still hidden in a cloak of charity, this modern travesty began less tragically. Traditionally, poor rural families gave their children to wealthy city dwellers. The child did domestic work for an education. But now, these young innocents face a nightmare of hard labor, beatings, and sexual abuse without even a glimmer of hope for an education. Harris explains that a happy ending for Haitian children of poverty seems to be leaving their families to live in an orphanage where they are safe and educated, a much better fate than that of Haiti's 300,000 child slaves.

Sadly Haiti, a country founded on an 1804 slave revolt, has little means to stop this abuse. Check out these suggestions of how you can help put an end to modern slavery.

Source

China Reconsidering One-Child Policy

LibertySugar — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:00:54 -0800

China is considering incrementally changing its strict family-planning policies. The world's most populous country has restricted most families to one child for three decades. Today, it implements the policy using harsh fines, but during the 1980s, Chinese routinely underwent forced abortions and sterilization procedures. Chinese officials believe the policy has prevented 400 million births, and allowed China to prosper and preserve its resources.

But now a demographic crisis awaits China's urban centers. With aging populations, cities already are experiencing labor shortages. The gender imbalance - Chinese have more boys as a result of selective abortion - also troubles the county. A gradual shift in policy, such as the shift in Shanghai, may be in order. Now, Shanghai allows couples to have two children, if both partners have no siblings.

Do you think that China's family planning regulations offend the freedom to reproduce, a human right? Or, is this more of an environmental issue? With a population in China of 1.3 billion, could China, and the world sustain another 400 million people and counting?

Source

Is There A Right Time To Get Pregnant?

DearSugar — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 12:16:22 -0800

Dear Sugar
I have been with my wonderful husband for eight years and married for three. Both of us are very dedicated to our careers but are very excited to start a family one day. We have decided to wait two to three years before getting pregnant in order to give us more time to climb the corporate ladder.

However, lately it seems as though everyone around us is getting pregnant and I am feeling the tick-tock of my biological clock. I feel like we've been saying two or three more years for the couple of years and I have been finding myself asking, why wait any longer?

My husband and I would ideally like to establish our careers and eventually move back to our hometown but that just seems like it will still take a few more years. I know that every couple is different, but do you have any idea when a good or ideal time is to start a family?

I am 27 and my husband is 30. I still feel like that is fairly young, however since we have been together for so long, we've travelled and done many of the things new couples wait on having children to do. How will we know when we are ready? Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. No Family Plan Jan

To see DEARSUGAR's answer read more

Dear No Family Plan Jan
Unfortunately only you and your husband can really answer that question. All I can is that if the time is right for those around you, it doesn't necessarily mean that the time is right for you. If you and your husband want to dedicate more time to building your carers, than waiting is the best plan.

When you are ready to prepare for pregnancy, make sure to visit your doctor. If you are taking oral contraceptives, it is best to stop taking them two to three months before trying to conceive. Maintaining a healthy diet, a healthy weight, and keeping to a routine exercise schedule will help prepare your body for pregnancy and labor.

Enjoy learning about your friends and co-workers pregnancies and take in all the tips you can. Don't let the feeling of time or a lack strict plan pressure you. When the time is right, you will feel a longing and anticipation for a child. You don't want to have any regrets, so if your career is your top priority now, you certainly have the time to hold out on having children.