alajuela
Active member
Point taken and appreciated,These are not fallacious arguments made from malicious hearsay. These are numerous reports from a multitude of credible sources and I was just commenting on this as it could relate to photography. Your indignation is misdirected. A Bill is being considered called “The Slave-Free Business Certification Act,” it increases the corporate supply chain disclosure requirements while mandating regular audits. It will also require CEOs to certify that their companies’ supply chains are not participating in forced slave labor and will create penalties for firms that fail basic minimum standards for human rights.
I want to know if what I purchase is being produced by slave labor. It's just that simple, no accusations. I'm dismayed by all the pushback, but considering today's events, not surprised. I agree, that charity and judgement do begin at home, hence, my initial comment. Good point!
I worked and lived in Asia from 1999 - 2016 one of my direct responsibilities was labor and human rights compliance - where I personally with my team and using BV and ITS for forensic payroll audits, inspected hundreds of factories throughout out Asia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Viet Nam, South Korea, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Pakistan and of course China. All the countries have their own particular issues. I think I can say with more creditably than some of the talking heads, on TV, that slave labor is not prevalent especially on export items if at all. I think there is a lot of click bait and hyperbole, Slave Labor bring up the connotation or Southern Plantations in the US where Humans were bought and sold as though they were horses. where most likely if is more similar to making license plates in US prisons. Calling these Concentration Camps, brings up images of WW II - My father was in these camps in Poland, Czechoslovakia, (yes he had the tattoo number on his left forearm) so I tend to resent the quick use of words.
I am not discounting nor am I excusing and even less condoning Chinese draconian measures that they take with own citizens. Justice in a legal sense we are accustomed to, does not exist. I have seen first hand US companies withdraw from Chinese factories for payroll irregularities, that went uncorrected with 60 days, I agree with your intentions and good conscience, I am highly skeptical of talking heads , that are just that talking heads, what they say today and what they say tomorrow with the same conviction, has no accountability. Just anecdotally, I have seen NGOs get involved and come down on "Child Labor" (not in China it was Turkey) where they threaten factories closing them down, YES nobody wants child labor - except the mothers that have 15 year old and don't want them on the streets hustling, drugs, petty crime or worst. My point being If you don't want child labor, then use your NGO money, to set up vocational schools. Identifying problems is the easy sexy part, solving the cause, is the sweaty unglamorous work
Sorry to run on like this, but I think things need to be said, and drama has no part in this, Human dignity should be universal, where it gets complicated is with cultures and chauvinism which must temper things, at least hyperbole. To say again, I agree with you, I personally would never buy ANYTHING made by people in concentration camps. My point (not directed at you but at the subject at hand) is also summed up with - "have you ever been on some of the Indian Reservations in the Western United States", I say not directed at you but at some of the others that might read this and their self righteousness clouds the reality of Universal Human Rights, making it impossible to have a meaningful discussion.