Source: The Huffington Post
and photos provided by this blog editor
and photos provided by this blog editor
Chocolate. Whatever
your preferred form or flavor is, the love of it is something that feels
universal, shared between us. We come together over dinner for it, celebrate
birthdays and holidays with it. The industry that produces chocolate
crisscrosses the entire world.
Cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast
But for the cocoa
bean farmers from M'batto, Ivory Coast, seen in the video above, that
connection didn't come full circle until Selay Marius Kouassi, guest
correspondent for Metropolis TV, visited and offered them a taste of their
first chocolate bar.
Ivory Coast, a
small country on the west coast of Africa, is the world's leading producer of
cocoa beans, the primary ingredient in chocolate. As a result, many of the
farmers in the video have been working with the crop -- surrounded by it,
really -- for decades. But, unbelievably enough, they've never had a taste of
the finished product. As CNN.com explains, cocoa bean farmers are at the bottom
of a global supply chain that stands "firmly against [them]." Because
the traders, processors, exporters and manufacturers all sit above farmers on
that chain and demand a profit margin, farmers have little bargaining power and
receive the bare minimum for their product.
Cocoa trees
N'Da Alphonse, the
first farmer to take a bite, says that he doesn't even know what the cocoa
beans he's working hard to harvest and dry are used for. For all his hard work
producing the beans, he only makes seven euros a day. In M'batto, a bar of
chocolate costs two euros. Kouassi offers him a bar to eat, and he immediately
lights up. "I did not know that cocoa was so yummy," he says.
"Delicious." He takes another bar to his friends. They're excited,
but suspicious. "Are you really 100 percent sure that this is made from
cocoa beans?" one man asks. The farm workers pass the bar around to each
other, marveling at the taste and teasing Kouassi good-naturedly. They break
out into a cheer when a third is offered. "We complain because growing
cocoa is hard work," one of the workers says, having taken his first bite.
"Now we enjoy the result. What a privilege to taste it."
We love chocolate...But hate slavery...and abhor child labour
Remember the children of Ivory Coast when you have your next bite of chocolate...
Note
I received this piece from Abhishek...I am sure all of you following the blog are acquainted with the "miracle kid" by now... I asked him to provide his insight with the video piece...He sent us the Huffington Post passage and few lines of his own...
The blog introduced the photos ... from google search...
Maybe!
Then may be waiting will be too long...The sad things will pile up... and the kid-vendors
in the markets and the slave labours in the fields will be fed up... and then,
Maybe they will just yell... Fuck Off...
I received this piece from Abhishek...I am sure all of you following the blog are acquainted with the "miracle kid" by now... I asked him to provide his insight with the video piece...He sent us the Huffington Post passage and few lines of his own...
The blog introduced the photos ... from google search...
Children in cocoa farms... They have not even tasted chocolate...!
This is what he wrote...
WHAT IS THE POINT
OF HAVING SOMETHING, IF WE ARE NOT WILLING TO SHARE THE JOY IT GIVES?
It blows
my mind that many "chocolate" farmers haven't tried chocolate.
The "point of life" is to share the joys... like chocolate!
When I first watched the video I was surprised to see the farmers tasting
their first chocolate…!
I watched the video again…and I remembered my students having fun with
chocolate… Many of them have given me boxes of chocolate on various occasions…
I remembered some of the students writing to me … “the blog posts are
sad…and depressing…” and then, I
remembered the kids in Middle East …selling gum or lottery on the sidewalks…to
make a living…
When you are centered on yourself…when you are just concerned about your
needs and urges all the rest seems “sad”… and you want to disengage yourself
from the “sad” occurrences…
How can Christians and other religious people disengage themselves from
the rest of the world is a puzzle to me…! I think the priests and religious
leaders and educators have a big role in teaching younger people to be
disengaged from their surrounding and community…
The happy-go-lucky attitude of the teens and younger people contributes
directly to the “sad” things that happen in the Global Village…
I remembered the kids in Canada and the U.S. having fun all summer long
…
I remember too... that I have cleaned chocolate wraps from students' desks...and scrubbed gum from under their chairs...
I remembered that they argued...that they have "the Divine Right" to be dirty...Some even said..."what are you paid for...?"
Indeed there are sad things happening in the world... Indeed the education system seems to be disengaged...like the chocolaty and gummy kids in my classroom...
After all, they are too fragile to encounter the "sad" things happening around them...in the world...
I looked at the photos of child labour in the cocoa farms in Ivory Coast
and remembered their football team at the World Cup…
Indeed, their football team and their slave labours…in the cocoa fields …
is there a connection…?
The West…and Europe and the “developed” countries…need raw material like
cocoa and athletes… The cocoa is cheap and is based on slave labour…
·
The Swiss…chocolates… The Belgian dark chocolates… and the slave labours
in Ivory Coast….
·
The British Premier League in football and the exorbitant monies paid to
the few athletes…to entertain the crowd of young people who are allergic to “sad”
occurrences in the world…
These facts make me sad…
They are disengaged…They enjoy football-soccer … They may even throw a
banana to the field…They want to have fun and be disengaged from the cocoa
field and slave labours…
They want their chocolate and eat it too…
How can they be happy…?
A conundrum that is “sad” and makes me more depressed…
I feel like I retired too soon … I feel like I had to stay longer in the
arresting walls of the classroom and talk to the kids...
I feel like I failed the kids… I feel like they needed more explanation
that …
Kids sale-people on the sidewalks........
1 kid in Canada + 1 kid in the U.S. + 1 kid in Ivory Coast = 3 kids in the Global Village…
I feel like they did not comprehend the math…that I was attempting to pass to them…
I had a banner, a group of students made it…It was pale green and it displayed “the number one” in various form…But the essential message was…
ONE WORLD … and ONE GOD…
I hope YOU will understand… I hope you will get engaged in the “sad” happenings in the cocoa fields… In the World… around you… in your community…
I am sure you may not be in the right mood always…but I hope you will make an effort…and get out of your torpor…
May be I must work harder… maybe I should write more…
MAY BE EVENTUALLY YOU WILL ACT…
May be I should wait a bit longer…
Maybe!
Kids flea market
Maybe!
Then may be waiting will be too long...The sad things will pile up... and the kid-vendors
in the markets and the slave labours in the fields will be fed up... and then,
Maybe they will just yell... Fuck Off...
Fuck off...!
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