My thoughts - Slavery vs Poverty

I have just finished reading yet another book “TRUE STORY” by Micheal Finkel. It is a good read and highly recommended. Below is a link to the summary of the book

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/11/DDG4SD61TU1.DTL

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This book got me thinking of the following.

What’s the difference between Slavery and Poverty? How media can generate misunderstandings and how organizations can perpetuate these errors?

Call me ignorant, prior to this, I have never heard of the relationship between chocolate and slavery. When I heard this, I was completely appalled. As I searched through google search on “Ivory Coast Slavery”, Top on the hit list is “Chocolate and Slavery”. In this article “Chocolate and slavery” it mentioned that young boys whose ages range from 12 to 16 have been sold into slave labor and are forced to work in cocoa farms in order to harvest the beans, from which chocolate is made, under inhumane conditions and extreme abuse.

In another article, I quote a young boy “ They enjoy something I suffered to make. I worked hard for them but saw no benefit. They are eating my flesh!” – to me these words seems daunting

In yet another article “ your clothes are taken off and your hands tied. You’re thrown on the floor and then beanter – beaten really viciously – twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, Runaways who are captured are sometimes pummeled to death”

After reading these articles, I was ashamed, I ran through my mind trying to recall if I have ever eaten any chocolates manufactured from Ivory Coast. Not that I could recall. Nestle is made in Malaysia, and the rest were either Belgian (my favorite) or France. I don’t recall any labeled Ivory coast. I may be wrong as from what I read, nearly 50% of the world’s chocolate were manufactured in Ivory Coast.

Above I must say if definitely what Slavery is all about. Something has to be done about it!

However, after reading the book, I had second thoughts. The writer Micheal Finkel presented another side of the story, which I must say, sounds convincing. Micheal Finkel an ex reporter for the “Time” magazine was tasked to write a report on Slavery on Ivory Coast. However, during this mission, he falsified parts of an investigative article and had been fired. In his book “True Story” he claimed that every detail that he wrote was accurately reported. Some may find it hard to believe this man as he was fired by Times for passing off a true story that was a deceptive blend of fact and fiction. But after reading the book, I choose to believe him.

On the subject of Slavery in Ivory Coast, in his book, he voiced out his suspicions that these boys were being coached to tell such stories. It was possible that this was being done so that the journalists would have powerful material. This would entice more journalists to visit. Everyone would be asked for donations and the stories would generate further contributions. This was an efficient way to raise funds.

He too interviewed couple of the boys who claimed that they were tortured but when asked to show the injuries, none could produce. In addition, he also added that these interviews were also arranged. Its like you go to an unfamiliar country and tell the people, I will pay you XX dollar if you show me a slave. It’s all about economics. If you offer someone money for a slave, he will show u a slave. The street boys are smart. They’ll go get their cousin and say “ Look here’s a slave” They’ll get you all the slaves you want.

I did a quick search again on google to see if I could find any pictures of young men being abused. I noticed that in most websites or articles, there were no pictures. The only picture that I’ve seen, which seemed to be repetitive in most of the article showed the back of a man that was badly injured. YES, he looked like he has been under tortured. But if slavery was to manifest in Ivory, I am sure that there should have more pictures to show the world

However, Micheal noted that the people were indeed suffering from poverty. Most children, he said sees this as a dream job. “This is because they can leave their village to get something they wanted. They want what they don’t have. They boys want bicycle…… They know all the brand names….”

As such, I believe that it is poverty that attracted these young men to work in cocoa plantations in a hope of better life. I think the word slavery is exaggerated. I agree that help is needed to raise the standard of living in Ivory Coast. Using media as a tool to generate sympathy on the pretext of slavery to encourage foreign funds is something unacceptable. On the other hand, using the word “slavery” might also hurt their export. This might gain people’s attention but it could also provoke a boycott on west African cocoa, which would only increase the level of poverty. It’s a viscious cycle

With this, I let you guys decide which side to take. “Slavery or Poverty”. This is sometime yet another grey area.