Children's Blood

Thanks BlueBelle.

The topic is about serious morality which is why I chose religion, spirituality, and Christmas.

I agree a ridiculous title and post, listed in the wrong forum! I honestly thought there was chocolate tasting of children's blood. That's sick.

Anyway, one good thing has come of it because I will now try Tony's Chocolonely Milk Chocolate instead of Cadbury and if I like it then I will switch. We are all Cadbury children. But if Cadbury changes then we should switch if we can.

Ask the mods to put this in news and politics OP.
Child labour and exploitation around the world is rife in poor countries, it’s a hard one to solve as youngsters help their families and would be even poorer if they didn’t do jobs.
It will only change when countries become wealthier over time just as it did here for workers.
Email Cadbury about it and avoid their products, awful sugary stuff in any case.

Caleo

Baggs, can we enjoy the festive season without helping to exploit workers in West Africa?

I suspect we can if we want to.

But I also feel that – rampant exploitation and awful working conditions aside – not all work done by children is necessarily a bad thing, especially if it helps their families.

Most replies condemn the way I wrote. Perhaps if I'd written real information, and used milder language somebody would have responded by buying only Freetrade prducts.

I don’t buy Cadbury’s not since they did the dirty and closed their British factory near Bristol and moved production to Poland. I’m not surprised if they are paying for cheaper cocoa and in so doing exploiting child labour.

I am not kidding that I'd really appreciate it if someone would explain in simple language about multinational business practices.

Tony’ Chocolonely is lovely, although difficult to share (what a shame ) and so is Divine, a Fairtrade chocolate. Since Cadbury went American it doesn’t taste nearly as good, so I would be happy to boycott it. Child labour is a good reason for doing so. I already boycott Nestle because of the baby milk problem. Shame about the Mars Bars though!

Caleo

Most replies condemn the way I wrote. Perhaps if I'd written real information, and used milder language somebody would have responded by buying only Freetrade prducts.

Or perhaps people do appreciate the information you and the Guardian wished to share, do decide to change their buying habits, but don't see the need to publicise their decisions.

It’s a pity that the majority of poor people in the world can’t afford Tony’s chocolate 😥

Well I’ve never heard of Tony’s chocolate and if expensive wouldn’t buy it.I think Cadbury went down the pan years ago tho, it’s more sugar and palm oil than chocolate.

MerylStreep

It’s a pity that the majority of poor people in the world can’t afford Tony’s chocolate 😥

Many people, possibly most, in the world can’t even afford Cadbury’s, but that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to buy more ethical (and better) stuff if we can afford it.

It’s not straightforward,though. If all child labour was stopped throughout the world there would be many deaths as a result. We tend to judge by our ‘western’ standards where we would be horrified if little kids had to work but, only a couple of centuries back, Britain and the rest were doing exactly that. The old mills and coal mines were every bit as bad and worse than some of the conditions kids have to work in today.

Baggs:- "Or perhaps people do appreciate the information you and the Guardian wished to share, do decide to change their buying habits, but don't see the need to publicise their decisions.".

good point. Ought people to participate by discussing the politics of the multinational sinners, or simply shut up and do the ethical thing without making a drama of it?

Nanna posted two posts back:

yes, Nanna, but the sin of our fathers should not be repeated by us, in 2023, especially since we have less brutal perspectives on political economy.

Caleo

Baggs:- "Or perhaps people do appreciate the information you and the Guardian wished to share, do decide to change their buying habits, but don't see the need to publicise their decisions.".

good point. Ought people to participate by discussing the politics of the multinational sinners, or simply shut up and do the ethical thing without making a drama of it?

I think people ought to will do what they think best in the manner they think best for their individual circumstances/personality, etc.

Not everyone wants to share their outrage or their willingness to try and do something about what they see as an injustice. Especially not on Gransnet.

But it's great that people bring these things up when they want to on GN and other social media sites.

Cobalt mining in Congo uses child labour according to this:

twitter.com/derenicbyrd/status/1731442545580790131?s=61&t=RXomt6Kq0P2JMMFCXNsJTA

Especially not on Gransnet.

(Baggs)

There are good GN rules that most people respect.