China seems to be getting blow after blow in recent times. Recently it was criticized for bad handling of the Tibet riots by the international community and now, the illegal usage of child labor by its Southwestern factories is fast building up as a reason for attracting international attention in the wrong way. Surely, it seems as though the prospective Olympic hosts are having a hard time trying to stay in the good books of the international community.
Liangshan happens to be a remote mountainous village in the southwestern part of China. Recently, it has come to light that children from here and the neighboring villages like Erwu are fast disappearing from their homes and schools. They have been traced to factory sites mainly in the southern Guangdong Province (in the vicinity of Hong Kong), Shandong, Shanxi and other coastal areas. The children are given fake identity cards and are made to work in toy, clothes and electronic products manufacturing factories.
School teachers and parents are gravely concerned about the falling number of students in schools. Labor employers, government investigators and local guardians suspect some con men in luring these children or kidnapping them to faraway places under the pretext of employment. They blame immense poverty, drug abuse, local unemployment, inflation, and stringent labor laws for the increased usage of child labor. The misery of not being able to get even a single meal per day has compelled these children to get lured to the greener pastures shown by the child labor brokers. On the other hand, rising inflation and stringent labor laws have made it difficult for the exporters to hire seasonal workers due to which child employment looked a cheap remedy to their problem.
The minimum employable age in China is 16 years. The Chinese government says that it has started taking action and that it has not found any strong evidence of violation of the child labor laws. The officials say that raiding 3000 factories around Dongguan has revealed only 6 to 10 child employees.
On one hand the global community is commenting on the progressive economy of China and talking about the increasing eating potential of its citizens. On the other hand, the penury and poverty of the Yi ethnic group of Liangshan leading to illegal child employment shows a contradictory picture. It will do China good to settle it’s internal crisis first rather than putting efforts in strengthening hostilities with its neighbors.
via: iht
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I love to make this wonderful analogy between the Indians and Chinese.
The Indians are Vulcans.
Vulcans:Vulcans, as a matter of custom and policy, suppress all emotional influence by living lives of rigid emotional self-control through meditative techniques and training of mental discipline. Vulcans are not depicted as having no emotions; although they themselves make this claim, Vulcans are a very emotional people. They developed techniques to suppress their emotions precisely because of the damage they can cause if unchecked. Vulcans practice arranged marriage, in which a male and a female are married or affianced as children, with consummation at a later date.Vulcans are vegetarians, though they are known to sometimes consume seafood and were omnivores in ages past.
The Chinese are Romulans:
The Romulans are an extremely distant relative of the Vulcans. They are extremely warlike and organized. They seek conquest and sought to defeat the Earth in their conquest of it. Aquisition is their main concern.
So this is after all the state of Communism in the land of Mao and his red army. Poverty and deprivation is prevailing in a country that is hoping to achieve superpower status. In its effort to become the world’s leader in export, China seems to be least concerned about the people working in its factories - whether they are children or adults.
I always doubted the authenticity of China’s meteoric growth. They have strong control over the media. So they highlight the brighter sides and hide the darker ones.
Had all the truths come out, I think they would never have got to stage the Olympics.