I watched an interesting show today on an episode of "The Passionate Eye", that I happened on quite by accident. I don't normally watch TV in the daytime, but it's a dull Sunday and I felt rather lazy. Now, I'm kinda wishing I hadn't...
The title of the program was, 'The Bitter Truth About Chocolate', and as an unabashed chocoholic, I was intrigued to learn more about my favourite food group. Unfortunately, this program wasn't about that yummy, dark and creamy confection that I can't seem to function without, but rather how it's grown, and, more importantly, how it is harvested. It seems that cocoa beans are grown primarily in Aftrica, and are being harvested largely by children who are sold and forced to work as slave labour either by child trafficers, or by impoverished families who hope their children will have a better life.
I HAD NO IDEA.
A BBC investigative journalist dug up the dirt on our beloved candy and with secret camera in hand, followed some of these poor children around as they hacked the fruit off the cocoa trees with machetes that in some cases, were longer than they were tall. Boys and girls, bought, sold and trafficked as young as 9, promised education and a salary yet getting neither, stuck in camps many miles away from their homes and families, lost in the maze of villages; sometimes in different countries. Their bodies showed the scars of wounds acquired whilst whacking the heavy, sharp blades of the African machete. So, while these children work long hard hours for little food and shelter, our Western candy corporations earned a record 60 billion dollars in profit in 2009. I cannot deny... I felt literally sick. When will it end?
We are the lucky ones. We live charmed lives in comparison to millions of people in the world. We have homes, and cars and good education and medical care, and disposable income. Yet, we are ignorant to how every day we support the corporations who continue to prey on the weak and disadvantaged. We put our stamp of approval on this vicious cycle every time we buy a bar and stay ignorant to the reality. And I have been the biggest offender.
Sometimes I hate being Canadian... hate being one of the 'haves' who continually want more. Hate that I get caught up in the rampant consumerism that plagues this country. But you wanna know what I hate most?? I HATE the fact that I continue to perpetuate the lie that having more will make me happy.
It just isn't true.
I often go through these moments where I want to sell everything and start over in such a way that I shed that mindset. I am so weary of the rat race of want that I get caught up in. Just when I think I'm beyond that, I see something or hear of some 'thing' that is being dangled in front of my eyes and I find myself drooling... if I could just have this one more trinket, I'd be done. One more pair of new shoes, one more cruise, one more new piece of furniture or electronic gadget. Just one more. It only takes seconds...nano seconds, and I'm hooked again. Drawn, once more, into the culture of consumerocity. Which is exactly what the big Corps. want. They will lie, steal and cheat to feed their insatiable lust for money. Because money is control, and control is power and power is the holy grail of the free world. It's infectious... and it infects every country; every culture. You don't have to look very far to realize there is no such thing as a purely 'socialist' country cause as they all preach equality for the masses, the leaders covertly stockpile mountains of money earned off the backs of the peasant masses. It's relentless and it's tragic that we've come so far in some ways, yet completely missed the mark in others.
*Sigh*, I see I have gone a bit off topic here, but trust me, there is a common thread. I guess I'm left wondering if I now have to walk the talk and completely go off chocolate? Is that even possible?
Oh, the inhumanity.
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