use Perl

• Hate to burst your people (Score:2)

  by belg4mit (967)

  But the same is true for just about any product on the shelves. And yes, yes you can buy fairly traded and organic goods in the US. In many cases you have a better chance of doing this than in other countries. There are several reasons for this. Good ethics are something companies can charge more far, and americans tend to have more disposable income (at least those whose wages haven't been eroded). Also, not exactly congruent, but last I heard the US is the only country which requires country of origin lab

  --
  Were that I say, pancakes?
  • Re:Hate to burst your people (Score:2)

    by belg4mit (967)

    s/people/bubble/

    --
    Were that I say, pancakes?
  • Re:Hate to burst your bubble (Score:1)

    by TeeJay (2309)

    Actually the UK has country of origin labelling as does much of the EU. In fact the EU has very strong labelling laws that the US refuse to comply with about things like GMO, Origin, etc.

    Also you will find many shops where you can be sure that the products were sourced ethically such as Oxfam and others.

    The worst products are clothing, rugs/carpets, sporting goods, charcoal and chocoloate. All are associated with child labor and slavery. A little research (or just buying british/local goods) means you c

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    @JAPH = qw(Hacker Perl Another Just);
    print reverse @JAPH;
    • Re:Hate to burst your bubble (Score:2)

      by belg4mit (967)

      That is *required*? Hmm. Odd, as this came up in
      a class just last semester (http://www.mit.edu/~11.122/).
      GMO is a horse of a different color.
      
      It's hard to rate "worst" badness. But I'd likely
      put shoes somewhere high up there. Or does that
      fall under the British defiintion of clothing ;-)
      
      I'm pretty sure cacao doesn't grow in the UK,
      nor carob for that matter :-P
      

      --
      Were that I say, pancakes?
      • Re:Hate to burst your bubble (Score:1)

        by TeeJay (2309)

        Well when it comes to GMO - the US has been hampering Tracability of products and threatening a trade war over labelling GMO goods.

        In europe you can still survive without GMO food or products - no major supermarket will sell GMO food.

        I think shoes come under both clothing and sporting goods.

        You can buy fair traded products that ensure that farmers and workers are given a fair deal and decent working conditions so even if you don't buy UK produce you can be sure that it isn't contaminated by child slav

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        @JAPH = qw(Hacker Perl Another Just);
        print reverse @JAPH;
• Please Be Accurate (Score:4, Insightful)

  by pudge (1) on 2003.02.14 22:05 (#17062) Homepage Journal

  That means unless you bought fair trade chocolate ... the ingrediants (sic) in your lovely chocolate bar, coffee mocha or cookie was farmed or processed by a child slave.
  
  That statement is not even close to accurate, from any facts I've seen. The Salon story says less than half of the chocolate imports come from a nation where some of the chocolate was farmed by children, some of whom are slaves. You say all of it is farmed of processed by a child slave. That is clearly false.
  
  You are misrepresenting the truth, either intentionally or carelessly. Either way, it damages your credibility and hurts your argument. It's your right to misrepresent the truth and damage your own credibility, but I was under the impression you wanted people to listen to what you have to say, so, a word to the wise: cut back on the hyperbole if you want thinking people to give a damn.
  

  Reply to This

  • Re:Please Be Accurate (Score:2)

    by jdavidb (1361)

    I felt the Salon story seemed to be blurring the truth a bit. At one point they are talking about slavery, at another they seem to be talking about families keeping their children out of school and making them work, perhaps comparable (perhaps much more severe, though) to the United States in the 1800s. It is unclear if all of the children they are talking about are slaves, or if some of them could be branded as underprivileged and perhaps they are trying to lump them all together to make the slave group

    --
    J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
    • Re:Please Be Accurate (Score:2)

      by pudge (1)

      I have no problem at all with fairly presenting the issue. I have a problem with careless or intentional disregard for truth, in something that is so obviously wrong as saying that all chocolate, that is not from a particular source, is the result of child slavery.
      • Re:Please Be Accurate (Score:2)

        by jdavidb (1361)

        Right. I was mostly trying to amplify what you said and suggest that maybe the misrepresentation began at the Salon article.

        Life has been so tough since I realized last year (thanks to some of you people, actually) that there seems to be no such thing as unbiased news!

        --
        J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
        • Re:Please Be Accurate (Score:1)

          by TeeJay (2309)

          Oh god!

          Its okay to eat chocoloate there is only a reasonable chance it was farmed by child slaves - it may have been produced or farmed by children forced to work by their families instead!

          For pities sake you people spend so much time nitpicking you don't ever worry about actually worrying about the important issue.

          Would you have shouted down those who opposed slavery because actually some slaves had been freed and others were domestic servents paid a pittance and therefore not slaves and entirely acc

          --
          
          @JAPH = qw(Hacker Perl Another Just);
          print reverse @JAPH;
          • Re:Please Be Accurate (Score:2)

            by ziggy (25)

            For pities sake you people spend so much time nitpicking you don't ever worry about actually worrying about the important issue.

            No, we are worrying about the important issue: getting the facts straight. As pudge pointed out: «The Salon story says less than half of the chocolate imports come from a nation where some of the chocolate was farmed by children, some of whom are slaves.»

            I'm not a statistician, but for the sake of argument, let's say that the probability that a single chocolate
            • Re:Please Be Accurate (Score:1)

              by TeeJay (2309)

              The facts are straight - The industry refuses to disclose the proportion of cocoa producedby chold labor or child slave labor.

              Each time you buy a chocolate bar - chances are the cocoa will not be from a single source - its not audited or accountable. Therefore if 50% of cocoa is from a country that suffers child slavery then there is a very high probability that some of that bar is from that country - say 80 to 90%.

              Then because the cocoa from that country is again unaccountably bought in bulk and all mi

              --
              
              @JAPH = qw(Hacker Perl Another Just);
              print reverse @JAPH;