Gold-Digging African Children

[shawmutt]

It's people like you who are destroying the economy...

Oh, believe me, I'm doing all I can to keep the economy going, and doing my part to warm the planet and ensure I have beachfront property before I die.

He just asked what we could do about it, and I answered.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

Lobby against child work in African Gold Mines, create a big fuss in the Media and as a result, force companies to import from countries/companies that don't use child labour. I've seen this before the exact same way concerning hand-woven carpets produced by children.

But I like my rugs to have a nice, tight, pile. Children are just better at that sort of thing, owing to the small hands, you see.

 

[Oliver]

But I like my rugs to have a nice, tight, pile. Children are just better at that sort of thing, owing to the small hands, you see.

I guess stating that your location is "Cruising the Volga" wasn't a joke after all?

 

[JoeyDonuts]

I guess stating that your location is "Cruising the Volga" wasn't a joke after all?

My palatial corner office in the Lubyanka ain't gonna carpet itself.

 

[LostAngeles]

strangely enough the town my Bananas come from dont do things like we do, there it is the Banana Farm that is building the school, them that hire teachers to educate the kids of their workers. something not happening around here. they do it diffrent than us.

But by ensuring they get a fair price for their Bananas the Farm is able to do this, and the Bananas cost only slightly more than Chiquita Bananas.

And this is good. If a company moves in to an area for cheap labor, gets it, and makes the area a better place (schools and healthcare and such) then more power to them.

How so? Change has to start somewhere, and your whingeing about fair-trade won't do anything at all. These conditions will not improve unless the region as a whole becomes stable and adopts concepts such as "worker's rights" and abolishes child labor. The impetus is on them to institute the changes. You can't find another source on the planet Earth for coltan that large. If a western company were to buy the mining operation outright, and run it in accordance with western notions of child labor, they would be put out of business by market demand for cheaper components provided by rival mines who still used cheap child labor. Either that, or they'd be killed.

I'm not the one spouting ignorance of this problem, friend. That's on your shoulders.

See, I like you. You're reasonable.

So my question is, does fair trade simply mean the whole, "we give them proper pay," or does it include the companies that go in and improve the area as well? I've been under the impression, in general, that fair trade has as much meaning as organic, but I'm not sure if that's based in fact of cynicism.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

Stick a "fair-trade" label on anything in this country, and there is a particular segment of consumers that will buy it without hesitation regardless of what it is or if they need it.

I know a guy with three pounds of "fair-trade" coffee in his cupboard.

Dude doesn't drink coffee and never has.

 

[Robster FCD]

A fair amount of gold and silver you find out there is recycled, especially right now. Some of it comes from investment gold and silver (bars and coins), some from people selling their old rings.

If you want your precious metals to be somewhat less problematic, take some old jewelry to a local custom jeweler. They can melt down the old stuff and pour it into a mold. Voila, new ring, pendant, etc.

As for gemstones, I'm a big fan of lab created stones. The sapphires are incredible, the amethyst are indistinguishable from natural, and you can have a big perfect emerald that if it was not synthetic, would be a museum piece, all for a fraction of the cost of natural. There aren't any good synthetic tanzanites yet, and while lab created diamonds are flawless, they are almost as expensive as mined stones. Lab created stones are only lacking as investment pieces, and perhaps to people who want the sentimental value of a "real" stone.

 

[realpaladin]

Stick a "fair-trade" label on anything in this country, and there is a particular segment of consumers that will buy it without hesitation regardless of what it is or if they need it.

I know a guy with three pounds of "fair-trade" coffee in his cupboard.

Dude doesn't drink coffee and never has.

Ah, that reminds me of a lot of people that buy these fair-trade thingies for 'when visitors are coming over'. And for their day-to-day groceries, the same old stuff still gets loaded into the trolley.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

Ah, that reminds me of a lot of people that buy these fair-trade thingies for 'when visitors are coming over'. And for their day-to-day groceries, the same old stuff still gets loaded into the trolley.

Yep. Everybody wants to have the appearance of being socially and environmentally conscious. Very few will continue to shell out the extra money for fair-trade when nobody's looking. I'm not one of them. Fair-trade improves someone else's situation while taking a larger chunk out of my sustenance budget. From a cost-benefit analysis, it's better for me to do things differently. Besides, where I'm from, I get most of the fresh fruit and vegetables I eat from local growers at farmer's markets. That way, I'm providing a more immediate and pronounced support to people in my own community, and I didn't need a fancy sticker to do it.