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It's certainly horrible— more horrible, perhaps, is that not buying commercial chocolate isn't going to help those people. There's always a market for slave lab
by Cushman 16y ago
It's certainly horrible— more horrible, perhaps, is that not buying commercial chocolate isn't going to help those people. There's always a market for slave labor.
Is this a good place to talk about what a socially conscious individual could do to actually fight slavery, rather than just not support it directly? Somehow I feel like writing emails does not have a huge effect.
- locopati 16y agoWhile those people may not be immediately helped by not buying, we are only directly in control of our own actions. Do we want to participate in a process that supports slave labor? If not, the first responsible action is to stop buying the product. From there, one can find other creative ways to address things.
- Cushman 16y agoLet me restate that— Sub-Saharan Africa is not, in general, a nice place to live for a vast number of people. These particular people are involved in the production of a luxury export, so they happen to show up on our radar screen, but the fundamental problems are not being caused by chocolate, and my buying chocolate from someone else, or indeed the collapse of the entire chocolate industry, is probably not going to do a lot more than make me feel better about myself. So okay, I stop financing slavery. What am I going to do to actually make it stop?