Child labor is happening everywhere, all the time. From the most obvious countries, to the least obvious countries. From your own town, to your own Province, State, or Territory. It started a long time ago, and children were hired to work in mines and mills in many places, and then it spread. Although there isn't as much child labor in 1st world countries, that's where most of it was before. Now, because people "need" to have fancy things, carpets, and clothing, and company owners are too cheap to hire adults who know what wages are worth, they decide to go to 2nd and 3rd world countries which are less knowing. __________________________________________________________________________________________________
You never know when you might come across child laborers, who only seem like homeless people to you. That's what the average passer-by thinks. They think "The poor child, he/she has no where to sleep tonight." Where in some cases, they do. Young girls, who turn to prostitution as a way to make money, obviously usually have a place to sleep for the night. But there are other people who are homeless, who are street vendors for a living. If you even call that living. Sure, being a street vendor, you are better off than working in a factory full of people, with little free time, food, or wages. But there are also dangers to that. Another form of child labor in Canada and the US is when children are forced to work on farms, where harmful pesticides are used, or when they are forced to work at factories, mills, and mines. Usually, those reasons happen because their parents are too lazy to do it themselves. Which is really stupid. Those parents have already had a good life. Can't they have a miserable last few years, and let their children have a good life? It would be a lot better that way. Just the same as it would be better if it were like that in 3rd world countries. The adults working instead of the kids. __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Child labor is way worse in the third world countries, than it is in the first and second world countries. In these places, kids get lured into the "business" by people pretending to be doing them good, and telling them that they'll be making good wages, have good hours, and more. But when these kids get to the place where they are told to go, it's exactly opposite of what they were expecting. The people in these countries find work for the same reasons as the kids in the above paragraph do. They are either forced by family members, or need the money. Very few actually want to work, and have no reason why they have to. The conditions, in which they work, would be a nightmare to us. Yet to them, it's their day-to-day lives. They get very little food. Very little time for a break, and in lots of places they can't even go to the bathroom during a working day, which is usually about twelve hours. If they work at a carpet-making factory (which is very hard... I've tried it on a field trip with my class, and I broke two threads) and they break a thread, or any other working material, they get abused. Mentally, Physically, and Verbally abused. Most of them are between the ages of 12 and 16. But that doesn't mean that there aren't any younger, or any older. There are a lot of them. __________________________________________________________________________________________________
DEAD KENNEDYS - "Chicken Farm"
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Another rainy morning mingling at the market
Bartering for food for another day
Rifle shots ring out behind the crumbling buildings
Executions have begun
Sprawled in the square are today's broken bodies
Lots to pick clean if you're first and quick
Rift through their pockets, peel off their clothes
To wear or sell when you wash out the blood
Run my little brother
Run to the chicken farm
Opportunity is calling
You might even find a watch
We're going down
To the chicken farm
Napalm rains no more
But the war goes on
Little brother died playing at the dump today
He found a new toy and held it up proud
Then it blew him to bits
How many more children
Will be killed or die at birth
Deformed by Agent Orange
In our food chain forever more
We're going down
To the chicken farm
This time we'll buy our way out
I've got a plan; you wait and see
I smuggled you this map
In the gash I sliced in my thigh
I hope I'm there to join you, love
We're blown to bits one by one in this camp
We crawl shaking through the fields at gunpoint all day
To defuse leftover landmines-by hand
We shiver on the deck and stiffen for the worst
If the pirates come around we might as well be dead
We'll be thrown in the sea
Or butchered if we're women
All in the name of gold
One foot in a land we can barely understand
Can't speak the tongue of Yankee hospitality
Our kids at school get beat up
To the tune of "Boat people, go home"
Sliced with a machete
From the breast of our homeland
Our new world tries to spit us out
But it sure beats the chicken farm
OUR LADY PEACE - "Life"
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How many times has your faith slipped away?
Well, is anybody safe?
Does anybody pray?
Oh, Life is waiting for you
So messed up, but we're alive
Oh, Life is waiting for you
So messed up, but we'll survive
ADEMA - "Giving In"
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I look forward, to dying tonight
Drinks still on myself, life's harder every day
The stress has got me
I'm giving in
Giving
Giving in now!
ANTI FLAG - "Angry, Young, and Poor"
angry, young and poor
angry, young and pissed
Angry no one cares
She never even had a chance
mental, sexual, physical violence
not once she heard an encouraging word
just the phrase, "you better shut up!"
and "you're going nowhere!"
her sad stories, all left untold
so her life became something,
so out of control
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You could click on some of the links on the "Things You Can Do To Help" link below. You can go cold turkey on things that were made by children (You might think that would help, but it won't. It will force the owners to abuse the children even more, because they will think that the children aren't doing a good enough job). There are many more things that you can do to help. My class thought up a big list of them. This was my idea though. I don't even know if we had to do this yet, or even if we will. But I figured, why not make this now? Even if it doesn't have to be done, what's so bad about it being done already? It informs people. __________________________________________________________________________________________________
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�February 2003, Christa B****
bravenet.com