Personally, I'd boycott the boots, but it's a tough moral dilemna, for sure.
If they weren't at the shoe factory, they'd probably be prostitutes and that's
even worse to me, especially with the skyrocketing increase of AIDS in Africa
and Asia.  Did you know that China has been lucky so far, but are now looking
at a potential disaster the government is ill-equipped to handle?  India is
coping with a huge epidemic, and here in the good ol' USA, strains of
resistant AIDS virii are popping up, thereby raising a spectre of another rise
in cases.  A very truly scary outcome.

Sorry but you inadverdently got me on a soapbox.  An elderly friend of mine
got diagnosed with HIV not long ago because she didn't think she would need to
have her lover use condoms for protection.  I've heard that HIV is growing
amongst the elderly, too.  (off the soapbox).

In my humble opinion, we Americans have it damned good compared with most of
the world.

Kat



On Thu, 1 Aug 2002 15:16:39 -0400 "Cleveland, Kyle E."
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Right you are, Kat.  There's also
> state-sanctioned slavery in the Sudan.  We
> Americans don't realize what a luxury is our
> right to "piss and moan" about
> our lot.
>
> Here in Ohio, we had a shoe factory, Rocky
> Boots, in a small southeastern OH
> town.  A year ago, the board voted to move the
> manufacturing operations from
> this little burg to a veritable sweatshop
> overseas.  Many jobs were lost and
> the town suffered bigtime.  The factory
> overseas pays children pennies per
> day to make these high-price boots--on very
> dangerous equipment designed for
> adult hands.
>
> My dilemma is this:  Do I boycott the company
> and insist that they shutdown
> the overseas plant?  If they do that, will
> these children be "out" the only
> chance at subsistence living they may have?
> Your thoughts?
>
> -Kyle
>
> (BTW--as far as I can tell, the "surprise
> attack" was cancelled--haven't
> heard a thing since this morning.)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathy Salkin
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 3:08 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: butt load of pocket change
>
>
> Every time I think something's screwed up in my
> life, I stop and think of
> the
> children who work in silk sweatshops in India.
> They are sold into slavery
> by
> their parents and are made to work under
> horrendous conditions.  It's very
> rare that one can escape into a better life.
> And the fashion industry looks
> the other way.  Even the token clauses
> outlawing child labour in their
> contracts are rendered moot for all practical
> purposes.
>
> Kat
>
>
> On Thu, 1 Aug 2002 13:02:22 -0400 "Cleveland,
> Kyle E."
>  wrote:
>
> > With these stats in mind, I'm not sure how
> > Bobby's remarks could be seen as
> > offensive.  Our capitalist system favors
> brain
> > over brawn.  If one is the
> > least bit creative, it's not difficult in
> this
> > country to find work.
>
>
> > I do think, however, that our's is a "culture
> > of complaint".  I'm as prone
> > as anybody to the "victim mentality" so
> > prevalent in our culture.  The sad
> > truth for the chronic "victim" is that it's
> the
> > same capitalist system that
> > creates enough largess so that anyone can
> > become a victim.
> >
> > If you want to see true "victimhood", take a
> > trip sometime to South East
> > Asia, where hundreds of thousands of
> Cambodian
> > kids have an incredibly bleak
> > future.  Why?  because they've had an arm or
> > leg (or both) blown off by a
> > landmine.  Their culture shuns the
> "defective",
> > so they are outcasts in
> > their own country, usually living at a
> > below-subsistence level.
> >
> > I have a friend who has a prosthetics
> business
> > in Pnom Penh.  He trains
> > young people (amputees) to make prostheses
> and
> > then sends them back to their
> > own village to start "cottage industries",
> > making prosthetics for others.
> > Many of those kids go on to work for the
> > original amputee, thereby growing
> > the business.
> >
> > They do this with the most rudimentary of
> > tools, often using hand tools as
> > they have no electricity in many of the
> > outlying villages.  We have so much
> > more than they, yet they still have no sense
> > that they are "victims".  It
> > can be pretty humbling.
> >
> > Back to work...
> >
> > -Kyle
> >
> >
>