Nothing sweet about this unfinished business

Sorry to publish without a purpose, but I need some help to pin this down. I read this over a week ago, and every day it gnaws at the back of my brain, needing me to process it and compartmentalise it, find my stance on the issue, if you will. But I can’t. It’s flummoxed me, and I can’t remember when I last read something that challenged me this way.

So the very, very brief version:  I was reading the very interesting Bitter Chocolate by Carol Off. She covers the long and horrific history of abuses that makes up the cocoa bean industry. I had seen a documentary on it a few years back, so as I read, was tut-tutting along at the lack of humanity in the world. I got up to the part when Congressman Engel tacked on a rider to the bill before congress saying that big chocolate had to prove they weren’t exploiting children and labels were to state they were ‘slave free’.  I thought to myself “Well, about time. How easy was that!” yet a few paragraphs on, I came to this, and was literally stunned, as it had never occurred to me that it wasn’t a simple solution and my boycott came at a price.

“even the threat of such a boycott sent a chill through industry worldwide and had devastating consequences, particularly in Bangladesh, where the country’s garment manufacturers abruptly dismissed about fifty thousand child workers. Most of the children had been supporting families and were subsequently forced to turn to other more dangerous and less lucrative employment – some in rock crushing and many others in prostitution.”  It had never occurred to me there were terrible unintended consequences in a seemingly straightforward move to make things ‘right’.

Later in the chapter, it is pointed out, that we need to face facts that in some parts of the world, children need to work. Anita Sheth of Save the Children said “What we wanted to do was take the hazards out of the work and not the child out of work.”

This is the crux of what has led me into confusion. I don’t know where I stand on it. I’m confused about what is the right thing to do. We in the West live very sheltered lives, and make decisions sometimes that are not based in the reality of the rest of the world.

I’d be interested in anyone who has an opinion on this, as I need to box down my thoughts, which I realise may not be possible, due to the complexity of the issue.

There is something so terrible that these abuses go on in the world, and yet poverty may be a worse existence.

I guess ultimately everything is not black and white, but my brain needs it to be, and I swing back and forth over this issue, confused at my own naivety and the lack of sense in this world that we’ve created.

I’d love some clarity, so all opinions, or views are welcome, for me to mull over and decide...

This is a fascinating book with engrossing stories from around the globe. It was quite an education for me and I really enjoyed the thought provoking issues.