I bought a flower garland at the traffic lights here in Chiang Mai, Thailand, this evening from a young boy of maybe 10 or 11. I think he probably went to school today but helps his indigenous construction laborer parents after school. I want to believe that.
This photo shows a 12-year-old girl working on road construction in Hpapun District, Southeast Burma. In the words of a villager in Win Yay Township, Dooplaya District, "Children from poor families who do not own plantations work as casual daily labourers to survive."
Fast fashion, cheap electronics and "fad foods" like cashew nuts from developing countries are often processed and created by children. Cheap chocolate is frequently harvested using children.
FAIR TRADE MATTERS.
Child Labor is more complicated than it seems, though. If your parents have no work and you are all starving, is it "child labor" to help? These indigenous Karen children are in a garbage dump in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border, about 4 hours south of where I live here in Chiang Mai. Not only do they live in the garbage dump, they help their parents to sort garbage for cash. Yes, it's child labor, and appalling.
Why do I share this with you tonight? Because it's 8.20pm in Thailand and NO ONE mentioned or talked about child labor issues today. Why wasn't my flower garland selling boy swooped up into protective arms by some well meaning policeman? Because he is an indigenous child. Yes, he was breaking labour laws but also helping his family in a way that Asia celebrates. And quietly keeping a whole layer of exploitative infrastructure and manufacturing processes alive that enables entitled white people to buy goods cheaply.
I want to ask you simply this: to INVESTIGATE the origins of the products you buy. To BOYCOTT exploitative firms, fast fashion and junk electronics. To CHOOSE FAIR TRADE.
Please don't refuse to buy from the boy selling the flowers, though. Cos without that sale, they may not eat much tonight. Instead of feeling bad after you buy the flower garland, go and make a donation to one of many organisations providing education, vocational training and support for his migrant-worker family.
THINK about what you buy, and who makes it. CHOOSE to be part of a world making different choices and a world which nourishes its children instead of exploiting them.
"I believe that children are our future..."
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