A Response to 21st Century Slaves

        My feelings toward media censorship and organizations such as FEMA are very strong in so that I resent them for not allowing us to see the full extent of an issue. I strongly feel like they view us as little kids, too fragile to be exposed to what is really going on. There was a recent debate on whether or not media was allowed to show deceased victims of hurricane Katrina to the public which brought a lot of heat into the kitchen. My immediate response was, why censor issues that are happening in our backyard when everyone else in the world gets the full just of it?

Allowing us the right, despite our age, to truthfully see how the imperfections of our society do exist should be considered. We need to stop making excuses and pointing fingers for our actions. Some people say that little kids who are exposed to violence are likely to develop a violent nature but I feel that exposing children to world issues, violent or not, could help a child develop awareness in the future. Many people would not agree with my point, but if we look at the Jewish religion, children are exposed to the holocaust as part of helping them understand their culture and religion.

Many people try to address the situation of sweatshops with elementary actions such as boycotting. They develop a sense of validity in that if they boycott a company the issue of child labor might disappear. This issue requires much more than boycotting in the sense that boycotting eventually wanes because it can never be done on a large scale. An activist group may temporarily prevent a company from profitable income but it is very rare that a company will go underground causing groups to jump attack one company to another. Let us suppose a group boycotted a prescription drug used to treat cancer patients but the company enticed child labor, inevitably consumers will continue to purchase these drugs as they are necessary for one to live. It is a lose-lose situation.

Child labor is a multifaceted global issue, and there is no one foolproof panacea for it. There are several very worthwhile methods that have been proposed to combat child labor, and the most effective solution to the problem is probably a combination of several different techniques.  I feel the only way to not really resolve but modernize this issue is to justify it with a couple of revisions because child labor will never cease to exist.  A couple of techniques that would need to be incorporated would be the working conditions and privileges of the children. One possible solution that incorporates the two is a child working with food, goods, or other commodities that will eventually be used to the benefit of the needy and are provided with the resources to attain an education in the process. This is not a costly revision and should not hurt a company’s revenue. Small revisions as such can be enormously successful.

With a combination of education, consumer knowledge, media privileges and creative strategies, child labor, slavery, and other dilemmas can and will be stopped or if not altered into a more comfortable existence.