Ortega
14th January 2004, 18:55
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington...ges/2060179.htm (http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/2060179.htm)
Forty-three percent of the world's cocoa beans, the raw material in chocolate, come from small, scattered farms in this poor West African country. And on some of the farms, the hot, hard work of clearing the fields and harvesting the fruit is done by boys who were sold or tricked into slavery. Most of them are between the ages of 12 and 16. Some are as young as 9.
The lucky slaves live on corn paste and bananas. The unlucky ones are whipped, beaten and broken like horses to harvest the almond-sized beans that are made into chocolate treats for more fortunate children in Europe and America.
I know that this is already a known fact to most of you, but this is coming from a major (and usually very biased toward capitalism and the U$ <_<) news agency.
Very interesting...
Forty-three percent of the world's cocoa beans, the raw material in chocolate, come from small, scattered farms in this poor West African country. And on some of the farms, the hot, hard work of clearing the fields and harvesting the fruit is done by boys who were sold or tricked into slavery. Most of them are between the ages of 12 and 16. Some are as young as 9.
The lucky slaves live on corn paste and bananas. The unlucky ones are whipped, beaten and broken like horses to harvest the almond-sized beans that are made into chocolate treats for more fortunate children in Europe and America.
I know that this is already a known fact to most of you, but this is coming from a major (and usually very biased toward capitalism and the U$ <_<) news agency.
Very interesting...