WARNING: This journal contaion societal issues which pretain to abuse, slavery and death.
I do not wish to enforce my opinions or shatter any mute bubbles you choose to envelope yourself in. So if you don't wish to know things that may shock you and cause you to rethink the way you veiw the world and commercial goods. I would suggest you do not read any further.

So chocolate...the saviour of any menstrating/PMS ing woman and the comfort food of choice as it pumps us full of 'feel good' vibes....nothing could be wrong with such perfection? Right?!!!

Oh I wish all of our naivety was correct but boy are we ever wrong....

On major example comes from Cote d'Ivoire, Africa...producer of 43% of the world's cocoa beans. Young boys from the ages of 12 to 16 are forced into slavery, harvesting cocoa beans under inhumane conditions and extreme abuse.Slave traffickers pray on boys they find alone or begging on the streets with promises of a better life an money, to be sold into slavery and forced to work long hours with little to no food, space (maybe a 20 by 24 foot shared amongst 18, where they are locked in for the night) and living in constant fear. There are 600,000 cocoa farms in Cote d'Ivoire with approximately 15,000 slaves. America alone spends about $13 billion a year on chocolate (while the workers get payed less than a dollar a day if payed at all). Sadly this supports the emotional and psycological scarring of countless young men; most of which never have the chance for escape (the ones who d have a long hard journey towards being able to function in society again). We are all part of this horrible chain.

Now onto the supposedly sustainable, all natural good for you fibre of cotton. WEll yet again I hate to make people feel bad, including myself.... but, China, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Uzbekistan and Turkey- seven of the worl's top cotton producers use child labour. In India 70% of the country’s estimated 100 million child labourers work in agriculture - of these several hundred thousand (mostly girls) sacrific their education and health to produce hyrbrid cotton plants for a thriving economy. In Ukbekistan, child labour is state sponsored and in most other countries these labourers are lucky to get $2 a day. Whereas America alone spends over $40 billion a year on this industry. The children knowingly suffer " beatings and extreme tiredness from carrying out heavily physical and demanding work. Child labourers are required to sow and pick cotton; cross-pollinate plants to produce hybrid seeds; weed and hoe; remove pests; carry heavy loads; and look after animals." They also work with plants and are in the field during pesticide (over $2 billion in this highly saturated plant) sprayings. Sadly, Europe and North America count for 75% of cotton imports around the world.

One of the best ways to help the working conditions of anyone in a developing country or under horrible conditions would be if everyone raised up their voices and demanded better treatment and fair wages and living conditions. Unfortunately this would cause a raise in price in this fast-paced world concerned with saving a buck. A good example is fairtrade bananas, instead of paying $0.19 for a regular banana buy and organic banana for $0.45 or a certfied fairtrade banana for $0.69. Pocket change of $0.50 more can improve the quality of life for just one worker in this all but perfect world. Hey I'm broke half the time, but that does not condone allowing someone else's quality of life to remain low. Fair Trade and Organic are a bit pricier, but an option when making a consious decisions while waiting for the world to catch up with the times.

So hopefully this was some food for thought (forgive the bad pun)...
This was just a brief overview and I hope those of you who were interested by this will do some research of your own, maybe post anything you found that I may be interested in here and open your minds to world issues if you already have not. Blood chocolate and cotton are not acceptable (in my opinion)...neither is relying on coutnries who can barely feed themselves for our food in North America.

Only we can change the present for the betterment of the future,

Bettie (the only reason I have used all American figures of money is because they are the only ones listed in any statistical way, this is not an attack on the States)

More may come later....please do not use this opportunity to preach the "justicies" of what I have just explained. If you wish to voice a contrary opinion or include additional information that may coutner a few things I have said, pleas do it in a taseful manner or not at all.... Thank you.