A young boy descends into a saphire mine in southern Madagascar. In 2008, the U.S. State Department reported that 28 percent of Madagascar's children between the ages of five and 17 were employed, about 438,000 of them in dangerous jobs. In the mining town of Ilakaka, the Madagascan government estimates that more than 19,000 children work "mostly in the informal sector, helping their families mine for gemstones or working as domestics and prostitutes."
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
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GERALD ANTHRO
6:50 PM ET
November 19, 2010
Child labor or Children starving?
GAP Inc. just discovered some of their goods were made by starving children. ( I know, I don't know if they are really starving, and neither does GAP )
They re-doubled thier efforts to make sure no children are involved in sweat shops making their products.
And there will be a crack down on children working.
While I support these efforts, I want to make sure "starving children" have not been kicked out into the street to starve from the sweat shops.
Starving, dying children is more offensive that having them work in a sweat shop, where they earn money for food.
We have to look at consequences.
Gerald
Anthropologist
HOMEAUTOMATION
5:47 AM ET
November 22, 2010
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/02/23/obamas_nuclear_
Most of the children working are below 14 or 15, which are their study age. I think a serious measure should be taken to reduce child exploitation in the mine sector.
homeautomation
RAY GIBBS
8:23 AM ET
November 23, 2010
Children of Gold as...
lost generation (s)...memory (ies)...image (s) of God.
ABERCROMBIEUK
11:11 PM ET
November 25, 2010
Universal access to family knowledge !
Universal access to family knowledge of basic occupational safety and health can also improve children's safety and health.
TIDDAS
3:26 AM ET
December 2, 2010
Potosi mines built a bridge of silver to Spain
Gee, those extractive industries . . . I visited Potosi three years ago and literally fainted from the thin air -- no ventilation, high altitude. Indigenous folks took over the mines after Europeans slave-mined them out. They formed collectives that require a male from each family to be working at all times. If the adult male gets sick (crystalization of lungs) or dies, the next oldest male works. This means the young ones in the photos have no older males for protection and care. If there are no males left, the family loses its share in the lottery work of mining for a chance to get rich. They say there's so much dynamite in Potosi, it would be blown to the moon if lit. It's sold in street-side cubicles with moonshine and coca leaves.