Let me guess- they'll find "happiness in slavery"?
There's nothing like chocolate.
And there's nothing quite like the new documentary which introduces the possibility of what could even be called "conflict chocolate".
Created by sociologist Kum-Kum Bhavnani, the film brings to us the fact that at least 43 percent of the world’s chocolate supply comes from Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Documenting the violence behind its harvest, including an ongoing civil war as well as the trafficking of child slaves for the purpose of coerced labor, the film makes my chocolate stash taste more bitter with every bite.
It's an open secret that the transatlantic slave trade – servicing “the West’s” insatiable demand for sugar – played a tremendous role in the economy of what was to become the Ivory Coast. And it's no secret at all anymore that your chocolate was probably made by little kids working under grueling conditions so that your kids can have something to chew on while they kill zombies and other beings on their iPads.
As a longtime supporter of boycotts and "buycotts", I find one of the critical aspects of living in a democracy to be my ability to "vote" in how I spend my money. Under a totalitarian system, human beings fund the very system that oppresses them for lack of other options. Persons who claim a love for "free markets" and then complain about Chik-Fil-A buycotts confused the concept of "free markets" with that of corporatism.
No brand commands my allegiance, loyalty, or money- that's why I have what we call a "choice". For example, I don't buy gas at BP or Shell. I don't own any diamonds. After all, who wants to fund an industry that deprives underprivileged human beings of their lives and futures? If my economic choices combined with the economic choices of other people like myself played any small part in Africa's recent "clean-up" of conflict diamonds, the end result makes me fifty times happier than some silly bauble.
The time has come to exercise discretion in my chocolate choices- to buy the sort of chocolate that doesn't use my money to make our world more unjust or cruel. The Fair Trade label is generally a good indicator that a food or drink product is being produced under fair labor arrangements. Sticklers for specifics will find an thorough list of "good chocolate products" right here.
"When people eat chocolate, they are eating my flesh" by Karlee Sapoznik
Warner Brothers' and the irony of Harry Potter chocolate (Walk Free)
The secret ingredient in chocolate (Canadian and World Issues)
Chocolate and child slavery (Atheist Nexus)
