Patrons of Slavery

This story appeared on the “World” headlines of CNN earlier today:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) — A Dutch journalist asked an Amsterdam court on Friday to convict him for eating chocolate, saying by doing so he was benefiting from child slavery on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast.

Teun van de Keuken, 35, is seeking a jail sentence to raise consumer awareness and force the cocoa and chocolate industry to take tougher measures to stamp out child labor.

“If I am found guilty of this crime, any chocolate consumer can be prosecuted after that. I hope that people would stop buying chocolate and thus hurt the sales of big corporations and make them do something about the problem,” van de Keuken said.

Ivory Coast, the world’s No. 1 cocoa producer, has been racked by instability since a brief 2002 civil war. International rights groups contend that children are working as slaves on its cocoa plantations.

Van de Keuken launched his attempt to be charged for eating chocolate two years ago when the Dutch public prosecutor ruled that it was not a case for the courts and that the journalist was not directly involved with the cocoa business.

On Friday, he appealed against the prosecutor’s decision before a court which is expected to rule in April.

The journalist traveled to Burkina Faso to track down former child slaves who he said were sold by their impoverished parents or lured by merchants to work on Ivory Coast farms.

Van de Keuken said he has now brought one of these former child slaves to testify in court against him.

“We profit from these people and they get almost nothing in return. As consumers we are also responsible for these atrocities,” van de Keuken told Reuters.

He urged consumers to choose fair trade chocolate but warned it was often difficult to trace the origin of cocoa beans.

(http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/02/09/ivorycoast.chocolate.reut/index.html)

Whether we like it or not, we are all patrons of slavery. Each and everyone of us have inadvertently bought something made by slaves - may it be sporting goods from Nike or simply a cup of coffee from Starbucks. So, next time we buy something, get to know your product - find out where its made. If you’re drinking coffee, look for fair trade coffee, as many coffee houses have them and provide them on request. The fight against economic slavery is not one that is easily won, but if we are aware of what is going on and take action to fight this injustice, this fight can be won.