How to Procrastinate

Before we begin, I would like to make one thing perfectly clear: Procrastination is not laziness, it is an art. Like other forms of art, procrastination can take a while to master, especially if you procrastinate. However, unlike other forms of art, procrastination does not bear visible fruits. More than often, only the procrastinator them self is the only one to enjoy the rewards of excellent procrastination. Before considering procrastination, it is important to first consider whether or not procrastination is right for you. Heed my warning, it is not for the lazy. Like I said earlier, there is a distinct difference. Laziness is not doing something with the intent to do it, while procrastination is not doing something with the intent to do it, and then doing it. The first step of properly performed procrastination is knowing what you intend to not do yet. For example, knowing when a certain homework assignment is due will let you know when you need to do it: right before. Master procrastinators such as myself can judge to the second how long it will take them to complete an assignment, allowing them to procrastinate more effectively. The second step is the easiest: do what you want. Watch television, go out with your friends, read a book, but by no means do what you have already dedicated yourself to procrastinating. Repeat until it is the time you designated as the shortest possible time to do the assignment effectively in Step one. Finally, do the assignment. I know, it is work, and you do not like work, but you have grown older and wiser from the time that it was assigned, and are now more able to do it. This is the basic procrastination system. More complex systems involve sweet-talking teachers and late passes, as illustrated in the doing of this blog post, but you get the basic idea. To review, the process in its most simple, naked form is: know the assignment, wait until you must do the assignment, then do it. Procrastinate responsibly.

Speech

Jake Linton

12/11/12

Logsdon 2^nd hour

Credit Card Debt

During the Holiday season we all go around the department stores and purchase gifts for one another. Oftentimes, my mom comes home with a trunk full of presents for all of my relatives.  She walks into Macy’s with nothing, and leaves with several bags of gifts. How? A credit card. A piece of plastic that costs fourty five cents or less to make. You can get credit cards for free from most banks. So you get a free card, go to a store, buy a new tv, pay nothing and leave. Sounds perfect. To the uninformed, a credit card is perfect. Its free, no hassle, convenient. Seriously, who today walks around with five hundred dollars in cash to buy Christmas presents? If you paid in that amount of cash, people would think you are a drug or arms dealer.  For all of these reasons, credit cards are extremely prevalent and successful. So what's the catch? No money, and free presents? How can credit card companies make money off of this, not to mention billion dollar industries that can advertise on a National scale. Credit cards are glamorous or sleek to hide their true nature. A credit card is almost a necessity today, but the problems are devastating. Credit card companies trick ignorant users to trap them in an endless cycle of debt.

Unfortunately, more and more Americans are falling prey to credit card debt. Student loans, home loans, business loans, and injuries are the leading causes of debt. The bank charges interest, and so does the credit card that you pay your loans on.  The payments become increasingly large and soon you have amassed a mountain of debt. There are dozens of hotlines claiming to end credit card debt. Almost all are fallacious. The most common ways to escape debt is to declare bankruptcy or commit suicide. It sounds absurd but dozens of deaths since 1980 have been linked to debt. Bankruptcy often just leads to further debt or unemployment.

This sounds like an adult problem or for just stupid people. Its not. Most people don’t truly know how to manage their money. Per year, the most new credit cards are registered during the first week of college due to the large “credit card fairs”. Companies just give out credit cards to students who are ignorant of contracts and terms of agreement. New students don’t manage money well, and soon they find themselves in debt with student loans or overall debt due to unemployment. Our generation is the MOST at risk of any. Money has changed over time. It was once gold or silver coins. Then it was paper and cloth money. Today, most money is exchanged virtually. Its almost like a game, its not even real. Its just numbers, not coins or dollar bills in your hand. You are at a higher risk because you don’t realize how much money you are spending.

How do companies do this? False advertising sometimes. Changing contracts other times. Loopholes in agreements. Compound interest on your rates.  Sometimes even setting up “help centers” that end up right back into the companies contracts. Unfortunately there are dozens of ways. The companies can use corporate power and lawyers to combat false advertisement charges.  An individual can’t strike out against a credit card company because its technically your own fault. It is. But credit card companies don’t help anyone or give any breaks. These entrapments are near impossible to expose in court because people often sign the unknowingly sign the contracts.

The best way to end credit card debt is to prevent credit card debt. It sounds like a dumb issue, but because it seems so trivial, people overlook it much more often than that earthquake or that war. If we want to fix the National economy, worry first about your own personal economy. If you are buying a house, don’t pay in cash until you deal cocaine. But otherwise, not using credit cards helps.  A credit card is a great thing. But only when its used in moderation, and with responsibility.

Scurlock, James. “Maxed Out: Hard Time, Easy Credit, and the Era of Predatory                          Lenders.” Magnolia Pictures, 2006. Film.

Powell, Eileen. “Americans build mountains of debt” New York, 2004. Print.

Shin, Annys. “How Has Bankruptcy Law Affected You?” The Washington Post, 2006.  

            Internet.

Geewax, Marilyn. “Consumers’ Personal Debt Ceilings on the Rise Again.” NPR, 2011.

            Internet.

Glasbergen, Randy. “Cartoon ID: Money 116.”  2006. Internet

speech

Graffiti has become, in a way, a well-integrated part of the artistic landscape throughout the world. It can be found in every single city on the planet in some form or another, and in several art galleries on each continent. It has launched the careers of several dedicated artists which I will cover more in depth later, and it has been used by programs to help keep high risk youth out of gang related violence and crime. It has been used by top companies to put what feels like a street edge on to their product. And it has been around since the societies we feel we have inherited our legacy from, Greece and Rome. Problem is, a large chunk of this is illegal. Whenever you leave a visible mark on someone’s property, including that of the government, without their permission, it is illegal and can lead to jail, prison, or hefty fines.

Now, for my purposes here, Graffiti refers to the historical paint and scratch marks I will outline later, and all forms of spray-painting, painting, stickers, wheat pasting and the like both legal and illegal with the purposes of spreading a message or putting ones name out in an artistic manner. To start, the word Graffiti originates from the Greek word “graephen” meaning “to write”. Nothing too illegal there. The oldest defacement-art defined as Graffiti can be found in the ancient world in Greece and Rome, the city of Pompeii, once it was uncovered from several layers of volcanic ash, was found to have graffiti scribbled on nearly every surface, as did most Roman building in this time period.

The writing on the walls also extends to Islamic architecture, because in original Islamic teachings it was illegal to depict humans in art and they therefor adorned their buildings in floral patterns and writing. This is not typically defined as Graffiti because there are no property rights infringed, but it does fall under my definition because of its artistic writing on the walls and message.

It was common during the era that Christianity began to take over Rome for early Christians to deface Roman statues with breaking, painting, nose removal, and scratching crosses. These pieces are nowadays worth more than they would have been originally because they have more history to them. This same process happened after the reigns of less supported Egyptian rulers as well.

When the Berlin wall was tore down multiple large chunks were sent to different museums and such and small chips are still sold to this day. These chips cost more when they’re adorned by what? You guessed it, Graffiti.

And don’t forget the long nosed balding cartoon character from the World war generation, no one from this time period would ever forget “Kilroy was here” and his other incarnations in other countries. His comedic existence was typically a reference to ration protests and he even showed up on the WWII memorial in Washington D.C.

Today, in Chicago, the Youth Struggling for Survival of the YSS have harnessed the graffiti skills of high risk Chicago kids to paint murals for schools and keep kids of the streets. These murals are never tagged over because they are something that these kids understand and have pride in.

Many of today’s best Graffiti artists have moved out of just the street centered art form and into massive businesses and art fields. A personal favorite artist of mine, Shepard Fairey spent years posting giant stickers of a highly stylized photo of Andre the Giant’s face over the word “OBEY” as an experiment. He know sells massive quantities of Art has a clothing brand based around this pseudo-movement and designed president Obama’s Hope campaign posters. I cannot remember the last time I saw a school presidential election that didn’t reference this man’s genius.

Commonly associated Fairey is the man that goes by the name of Banksy. He has never been unmasked, but he is the most prolific stencil artist in the world. Originating in the UK he has stenciled anti-corporate political activist-art multiple places on every continent except for maybe Antarctica. When he holds art shows his art is known to sell for upwards of 100,000 British pounds. He also got a best documentary nomination for his movie “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”

The founder of the infamous TATS cru, Wilfred “Bio” has branched from Graffiti to such a point that he has lectured at M.I.T. and was part of the Smithsonian’s institute’s 35^th folklore festival in Washington D.C.

London based Graffiti artist “Inkie” currently teaches art to children and Graphic Design to College students.

More examples of artistic success shows up where the likes of Graffiti artist Neckface work with skateboard companies to produce merchandise and Nike producing shoes with multiple other graffiti artists have led to Graffiti being a gateway out of a lot of poverty.

Another thing Nike has been doing with graffiti is its used of Graffiti style advertisements. Of course, Nike isn’t the only company making this kind of shift in urban areas, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and even the manufacturers of Hummer have hired graffiti artists to put up their advertisements. There is even a hotel in china, the Radisson Blu Hotel Pudong Century Park, with a “Graffiti Art” campaign in order to appear trendy to Chinese and Foreign customers.

And with all this artistic success, this commercialization and this backing from trusted corporate enterprises, what are kids supposed to think? That they’ll get fined and develop a criminal record if they start painting art on public space? That’s unlikely. Children and Teenagers are at an increasing rate picking up the Spray-paint in order to make art, and we need to harness this into a legal, productive way to improve our cities. We know what we have to do for our children and our cities, and that’s use their artistic talents to create legal public artworks for everybody. We need to help launch the careers of our future artists, and we need to stop letting these kids build criminal records trying to get their name out.

We need more programs like the YSS, and more public walls made to be painted, we need to give these kids these options to prevent urban decay and help communities.

Speech

Fast-forward to the year 2030. Where do you see yourself? Are you excelling in your career of choice? Do you have a spouse, maybe a couple of kids? But here’s the real question: Are you obese? According to a report done by NPR, by the year 2030, 50% of America’s population will be obese. As it stands right now, over 60% of America is either overweight or obese. If you’d like a specific number, there are over 72 million Americans that are classified as obese. That’s a downright ridiculous number of people. The blame for this atrocity falls onto none other than the fast food industry. Fast food has been the deciding factor for all of these statistics, and going by the numbers, it doesn’t look like that is going to change in a hurry. The fast food industry is ultimately the cause for the rise in the nation’s obesity rates because of the manipulation of society’s perception of fast food, the pure and utter laziness of Americans, and the endless availability of fast food.

The fast food industry’s manipulation of our perception of fast food begins with their heavily televised commercials. When we see fast food commercials, it’s almost as if the food is coming from another dimension. When was the last time you saw a fast food commercial with a fat person in it? Exactly. The use of skinnier people along with celebrities and professional athletes dominates the televised commercials. Take the Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” guy for instance. If he really wanted to know where the beef was so badly, he would have been a lot bigger. But instead, Americans sitting on their couches see LeBron James and Wayne Gretzky endorsing McDonald’s and think “If pro athletes can eat all that, so can I!” But wait; the manipulation does not end there. The real target of many fast food commercials is children. Kids see a commercial advertising the special toys that come with Happy Meals and all of a sudden they just have to collect them all. Or might they see a commercial for a larger McDonald’s with an indoor play facility, will they also be propelled through the greasy doors to the counter. But who takes them to McDonald’s? Their parents get to the counter to order their child a Happy Meal, and think ‘Oh, what the heck, I’m already here. I might as well get something for me to eat, too.’ Basically, if you can get the kids, you’ll get their parents too. It’s a sad yet effective scheme.

There is plenty more sadness surrounding the fast food and obesity situation, though. The laziness of society is outrageous. Unfortunately, the mindset of some Americans is ‘Why spend time cooking dinner when fast food is so, well…fast?’ The plague of this ideology has spread, and the growth of the fast food industry can attest to this. People would rather receive their dinner in a bag, ready to chomp down on within minutes, instead of spending a good chunk of time cooking a good, wholesome dinner. What they don’t realize is that the long-term health factor outweighs the matter of time and effort greatly. The fast food industry’s presence in our lives is so prominent that even though we might know that the food is bad for us, we don’t apply ourselves to the situation enough. The laziness of American society has led us to this roadblock. Without an effort, obesity rates will continue to rise. Without an effort, there is no achievement.

Lastly, the endless availability of fast food in America has made it difficult for us to apply ourselves to the obesity situation. To put it into perspective, there are over 200,000 fast food restaurants in the United States. Throw in the almost-equally-as-unhealthy casual dining restaurants, and that number is raised by about 100,000. When the ease of access for fast food is so significant, it’s hard to believe that people would not take advantage of that. Even still, the only true way to combat this issue is for people to start caring more for their own sake. The fast food industry has been able to put up more restaurants because of how little people care. Thousands of new fast food joints are still going up every year because the industry knows that all they can do at this point is profit. And that is the sad truth. The growth of the fast food industry is outdoing the growth of the number of people who actively recognize the issue of obesity in this country.

Obesity is a monstrous issue that needs to be acted on. The millions of people in this nation waddling around like penguins may not have acted on it, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t. The fast food industry can manipulate our perception of fast food, but they can’t touch those who actively recognize the issue. The endless availability of fast food may tempt the weak and lazy, but just keep in mind the reality behind fast food and its negative effects on society. I urge you to combat the cruel yellow arches, the temptations, the greasy food, and the industry as a whole. Obesity rates have been on the rise because of the tendency of Americans to disregard our health and keep taking bites out of that luscious Big Mac. There are only so many bites for every burger, and there are only so many burgers before it’s too late.

Bibliography:

Spurlock, Morgan, Prod. Super Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock." Samuel Goldwyn Films: 2004, Film.

"Obesity In America, By The Numbers." NPR. n. page. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. .

Schlosser, Eric. PR Watch Interview. 17 Nov 2006. Center for Media and Democracy. Web. 8 Aug 2011.

CAFOs Speech

Imagine living in a space with 100 other people constantly pressing against you. Imagine this space giving each of you only an inch or two of movement on either side. Imagine never going outdoors, confined behind metal bars as you stand in your own fecal matter, and the fecal matter of your neighbors. No one could argue against the discomfort and uncleanness of this situation. However, these are the conditions in which animals are raised for slaughter in the United States. CAFOs, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, mass produce most of the meat we eat. This method harms the animals themselves, the environment, and consumers.

Take pigs for example. Breeding hogs spend most of their life in metal confines too small to let them turn around. They simply breed, nourish piglets, and repeat. Those piglets that contract diseases are killed by slamming them against a wall, an acceptable method of "euthanizing" pigs less than 12 pounds. I wouldn't call blunt force trauma a painless way to end the lives of sick animals, but the National Pork Board apparently does. Those piglets that do survive may have it even worse though. Their curly tails are amputated. They live in pens with hundreds of other pigs, and never even see sunlight or grass. This isn't natural.

Animals in CAFOs don't even grow naturally. Because farmers want their animals to mature as fast as possible, they feed them hormones and antibiotics to promote faster growth. Chickens grow so quickly that their organs often can't keep up and they die long before taking the trip to the slaughterhouse, and this is common in every type of CAFO.

Preventative antibiotics are also regularly fed to animals living in CAFOs as such close quarters and unsanitary living conditions cause diseases to spread quicker. However, these preventative measures can hurt as much as they help as bacteria become resistant to the overused antibiotics. This resistance is detrimental to the animal, the environment, and the eventual consumer of that animal. The USDA even admits there is evidence that some of the antibiotics and even natural hormones “can persist in the environment and may affect the ecology of downstream areas and perhaps even humans.” So, potentially the methods we use to raise livestock could lead to health consequences in consumers.

Although antibiotics play a part in the effects of CAFOs on the environment, it is most affected by the waste produced from these large scale factory farms. This waste pollutes the air as airborne particles, greenhouse gases, and toxic chemicals are released from the animal excrements. The manure can be used as fertilizer for plants, but if too much is applied or if it is applied at the wrong time, runoff washes the manure off the field and it ends up polluting streams and other bodies of water. Plus, many farms simply hold their waste in man-made lagoons that often allow contaminants to seep into groundwater.

This air and water pollution caused by CAFOs can hurt humans in numerous ways. Runoff and waste lagoons contaminate water resources and can make people sick by bringing wastes and pathogens into drinking water. Air pollution often contributes to respiratory problems in farmers and those living nearby.

Yes, CAFOs are more “efficient” for raising livestock. In one CAFO more animals can be grown quicker and larger than on a farm that does not use growth hormones, a plethora of antibiotics, and stuff their animals into small and unnatural living environments, causing meat to be produced cheaper, BUT this price doesn’t really show the whole picture. Production costs are swallowed by the individual farmers working for large corporations. Any animals that don’t survive until slaughter- the responsibility of the farmer. What to do with the immense waste produced by CAFOs- decided by the farmer. The ongoing expense of operating CAFOs- dealt with by the farmer. A corporation decides how the animal will be raised. Then all the risk goes to the farmers. Not only are the animals treated unfairly, but so are the farmers! Plus, the health and environmental effects of CAFOs aren’t added into the cost.

This is why we need to start making changes to factory farming. I eat fast food almost every night, and when I don’t eat out I buy my meat from Kroger’s down the street. It’s simply easier and cheaper to buy meat that has been produced from a CAFO than to buy directly from a farmer, but the moral, environmental, and general health consequences that stem from consuming animals born and raised in these unnatural confines are huge. At least consider buying food from smaller, sustainable farms. Buying local puts more money directly into the farmer’s hand as it cuts out transportation costs and middle men. It also reduces the impact on the environment as the meat doesn’t travel across the country. The Farmer’s Market in Lexington offers locally raised organic beef that doesn’t cost anymore than the same portion from your average steakhouse. Not to mention, the animals aren’t tortured or pumped with medication and hormones. They live and grow- naturally.

Sources:

“Animal Cruelty.” closeanimalfactories.org. The Center to Explose & Close Animal Factories, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.

Ebner, Paul. CAFOs: Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Purdue University, 25 Oct. 2007. Web. 9 Aug. 2011.

“Factory Farming.” sustainabletable.org. Sustainable Table, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.

Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Magnolia Home Entertainment, 2008. DVD.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print.

“Animal Cruelty.” closeanimalfactories.org. The Center to Explose & Close Animal Factories, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.

“Utilization of Manure and Other Agricultural and Industrial Byproducts Action Plan 2009-2013.” usda.gov. USDA. 13 Oct. 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2011.

Gun Control

Last Thursday, a gunman shot and killed a police officer on Virginia Tech’s campus, then killed himself shortly after. This shooting created national attention because it reminds us of four years ago, when a Virginia Tech student, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and injured 25 on the same campus. While large-scale American shootings such as Virginia Tech and Columbine receive national attention, the truth is that thousands go unrecognized each year. This leads us to ask, “What should we do?” Nearly every shooting with national attention in America has produced some form of legislation, but the only one to be passed was Bush’s federal gun control measure in 2008 that gave money to the states to help make gun-buying background checks more effective. The last law made to limit what kinds of guns can be purchased in America was Clinton’s “Federal Assault Weapons Ban”, which expired in 2004. This law banned the selling of guns that were considered “assault weapons,” but no one really knew what that meant. What the law did do that was very effective, however, was ban the sale of semi-automatic firearms with clip sizes of greater than 10 rounds. This law satisfied everyone in the gun control fight because it allowed for the sale of guns powerful enough to hunt and defend one’s self, while also illegalizing guns powerful enough for shootings the size of Virginia Tech and Columbine. Now there have been several attempts at renewing Clinton’s Assault Weapons Ban, but none have reached the floor for a vote so far, because the law as a whole is so unpopular. But I say we renew the best part of the law and once again make it illegal to purchase a firearm with a clip size of greater than 10 rounds.

The issue of gun control in America is ultimately derived from the Second Amendment, which reads, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The controversy here lies as to where the limit should be set on what “arms” Americans have the right to “bear.” Some believe the right should be absolute, that any and all arms should be legal. Others draw the line at obvious limitations, such as nuclear missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Gun control radicals, on the other hand, believe that the amendment gives the right to bear arms exclusively to “well-regulated militias” and that ordinary citizens should not have guns. When determining where the line is drawn, it is important to understand that no right is absolute. Even though the First Amendment gives me the right to free speech, I can’t yell “Fire!” in a museum when there isn’t one, because the ensuing rush would likely cause injury to others. My right to unlimited free speech would conflict with other’s rights to not be injured. Much in the same way, the right to own a gun can conflict with public safety.

Another common source of debate on gun control is the relevance of the Second Amendment today. The Bill of Rights was produced well before 1837, when the first handgun capable of firing multiple rounds without reloading was made. Not to mention 2011, when you can buy as much live ammunition as you want at a local Wal-Mart, purchase a rifle at a bank (Bowling for Columbine), and own a large machine gun capable of shooting 20 bullets per second. In the shooting in Tucson, Arizona in January of this year, a man killed 6 people, on a failed assassination attempt on U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, with an automatic pistol he had legally purchased a month prior. Surely the Second Amendment would have had set specific limitations on legal arms if our founding fathers knew the extent of power and ease of obtaining that guns would have in the future, right? The answer is that we don’t know. We are left to change our laws to a changing society. Gun control is so difficult to regulate because it is not the American society’s lust and admiration for guns that’s changing; it’s the guns themselves.

Semi-automatic pistols with large 32 round magazines, like those used in Virginia Tech, Columbine, and Tucson, Arizona can be found standard at any local gun store. Why, on Earth, would any citizen need 32 bullets at one time? Who thought that that was a good idea? There is a difference between a firearm of sport or self-defense and a weapon capable of ending 32 lives in seconds, much like there is a difference between yelling “Fire!” in a museum and actually burning the museum down. There is absolutely no practical purpose that a clip of that size can serve that a much smaller one cannot.

Today, there are more firearms in the United States than people. Of America’s guns, less than half belong to the military and police combined. Yet even with most of our guns belonging to “good, law-abiding citizens,” they still find their way into headlines and news reports all too often, only to be covered as a human mistake. It has to be the gun’s fault every once in a while. America experimented with Clinton’s “Federal Assault Weapons Ban,” to discover that we didn’t like it. But what we didn’t like was its complication, not its intention. The section of the ban illegalizing the sale of firearms with clips of greater than ten bullets would have prevented the shootings of Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Tucson, Arizona. But why wait for the next American massacre to deal with the ongoing debate of gun control, when we can once again prevent people from buying arms with such destructive capabilities? Yes, we, as Americans, have the right to own guns, but even greater, the responsibility to defend public safety.

Bowling for Columbine. By Michael Moore. Dir. Michael Moore. 2002.

Nagourney, Adam, and Jennifer Steinhauer. "A Clamor for Gun Limits, but Few Expect Real Changes." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Jan. 2011. Web.

Lock, Stock and Barrel: Understanding the Firearms Industry‏. YouTube. TheNSSF, 14 Mar. 2011. Web.

-Also, I couldn't find a way to fix the white highlighting on a quote I copied/pasted and half of my essay. Sorry about that.

Speech

Let me tell you about Drissa’s day… Drissa doesn’t go to school. He doesn’t even speak the language where he lives. He works a 12 hour day under the scalding hot sun. He spends his day swinging a razor sharp machete harvesting cocoa and hauling back breaking loads across the plantation where he works. When night comes and his work day is finally over, Drissa is locked in a room with 17 other teen age boys with only a small can for a toilet. Like his roommates, Drissa has been lured from the western part of the Ivory Coast by the promise of a good job. The reality is very different.

They have become slaves on cocoa plantations. The slave owners have the boys convinced they are under a magical spell. If they run away the will be paralyzed. Some of the boys still try to escape. Most are recaptured and savagely beaten over the course of several days. Many do not survive. Those who do are put back to work as so as they can walk again. Their wounds remain untreated. The boys rely on maggots to eat their flesh and clean their wounds to ward off gangrene.

And why does he spend his days like this? So your chocolate bar can be as little as one tenth of one cent cheaper.

Child labor exists in the Ivory Coast as a part of the chocolate industry. It thrives through a combination of corruption, inaction, and ineffective measures to prevent it.

It is estimated that 145,000 adolescents work in the chocolate industry in the Ivory Coast. They range in age from 10 to 16 years old with some as young as seven. They recruited from rural areas by smugglers with the promise of jobs and money. In some cases, their families are willing to sell the children for as little as $1.50 and the promise of a better life for the child.

The smugglers target markets gathering groups of 10 to 15 children. They bus the children to the border cities near the Ivory Coast. The children are handed off to be smuggled across on motorcycle taxis using back roads to avoid authorities. Once inside the Ivory Coast they are sold to plantation owners under the protection of local militia. The children are sold for roughly 250 euros or about $300.

It is estimated that three percent of the world wide labor pool in cocoa farming are adolescents. Eliminating this cheap source of labor will have almost no impact on the cost of chocolate. It will, however, eliminate a horror that steals the childhood and many times the lives of thousands of children.

What is being done to stop this horror?

Efforts fall into two categories. Lip service that does nothing more than perpetuate the practice and, under-supported efforts which could make a real difference.

In 2001, chocolate manufacturers attempted to address the problem as a group. The major manufacturers signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol. it called for the elimination of child labor in the cocoa industry by the year 2008. The protocol led to some progress in that it kept the issue in the public eye and as a topic of public debate. But, it led to little real change in behaviors. Chocolate manufacturers continue to abdicate the responsibility to their suppliers. The chocolate manufacturers don’t own the cocoa plantation and claim they have no direct control. They fail to acknowledge their powerful indirect influence.

Ivory Coast officials like Tohe Adam Malick, Chief Secretary of the Department of Labor in the Ivory Coast, claim the government has the problem under control. They claim the laws on the books in the Ivory Coast are sufficient. They also claim the children are not coming over the border exclusively as slaves. Many are coming for vacation.

There are some real efforts to stop child slavery in the cocoa industry. Interpol took action on plantation on the Ivory Coast. The operation successfully rescued 65 children originally from eight different countries. They ranged in ages from 11 to 16 years old. They also arrested five traffickers.

A local attempt to monitor trafficking and rescue children is headed by the General Secretary of the Drivers Union in Sikasso, Mali. From 2006 through 2009, he has rescued over 570 children from traffickers. He and his drivers simply watch for children on the buses and stations in their town. Think of the lives saved by a single man’s efforts in a single town.

Is it worth a penny more on your chocolate bar to stop this tragedy perpetrated against children? What should be done to restore the futures and perhaps even the lives of thousands of west African children?

The authorities must get serious about the issue. Increased action by Interpol to continue its good work can directly save more children. Even more impactful are the local efforts like those in Sikasso. Border towns can have a dramatic impact simply through vigilance. Chocolate manufacturers must use their indirect influence over cocoa farmers to buy only fair wage produce. Finally, the cocoa producers themselves should be educated to understand that child labor is neither morally nor economically sustainable.
But what can you do? Support companies who support fair labor practices. Use your dollars in an activist manner. Drissa and the other west African children will be gratefu