So we have stopped buying chocolate that contains cocoa
harvested by child slaves – we have right?
No? Well stop now then. We have substituted it with Fair-trade
chocolate. No? Do that – it’s really
good. If you want some advice on the
best kinds check out my blog on that because honestly if I am going to put in
the hard work of taste testing I want as many people to benefit as
possible. And we have called, e-mailed
or personally asked our stores to carry Fair-trade chocolate to make it more
available to us and others. No?
Let’s get on that because demand is what makes this fair economy go
round and the stores need to hear our demands from our lips or keyboards and
then see the results in their inventories for it to really make a difference!
And now we come to the world of politics. It’s not as bad as everyone thinks. I’ll walk
you through it. Not to be all Mr. Smith
(from Mr. Smith goes to Washington just in case the uniqueness of the name
didn’t immediately call the reference to mind) but our government is meant to
be accessible to us, to be responsive. I
think someone once said ours is a government – of the people, by the people,
for the people (Gettysburg Address btw).
That’s us, the people. So if we the
people think that children in West Africa should not be trafficked, enslaved
and exploited so that we can eat chocolate than our government should be made
to care as well.
So we, the people, are going to try and get our government
back on the track it started in 2001 with the Harkin-Engel Protocol. For a start.
Little old me and little old you.
Yes. We are going to attempt to
get the Congress of the United States of America to do something effective and
important. Yes! It has happened and it can happen. What we know for sure. For absolute certain. 100% of surveys agree 100% of the time is
that if we do nothing nothing will change.
We don’t know that our actions will bring about the change we seek but
we can know for certain that if we choose to do nothing that things will stay
exactly as they are.
Let me just say this.
My senior year of college I did a semester in DC. Perhaps the best semester in all my many many
years in academia. And oh there were
many. Anyway half the time we were in
class and half the time we were at our internships. Somehow I ended up interning in Senator
Kennedy’s office. It was an amazing experience.
Learned a ton. Highlight – attending the
Nelson Mandela Congressional Gold Medal of Honor ceremony . Lowlight –that would have to be the many
occasions I was “asked” to walk the Senator’s dog. I’d be traipsing around with this little
yippy dog in my cute little skirts suit and high heels around the outside of
the Capitol Building. Not humiliating at
all.
Anyway, back to the relevant point. Senator Kennedy was about as tenured as you could
possibly get. He didn’t even need to run
for reelection. His biggest concern when
his six year term was up was if anyone knew the name of his opponent and
whether he would get ninety-eight instead of ninety-nine percent of the vote. Even someone as insulated as him kept very
careful track of constituent communications.
Two people in the main lobby office and several others at different locations
tracked constituent calls on specific issues and for general matters. These were communicated to higher level
staffers and became part of the discussion on bills and policy. My point being our representatives do care what
we think, they need to because their jobs are connected to it, but also, because
I hope and want to believe they take
seriously their responsibility to represent US with the power and position they
hold.
If you do not know who your representatives are you can follow
the links below.
www.senate.gov
After you use the
links to find out who your representatives are (quick primer – we each are
represented by two Senators in the Senate and one Representative in the House). Most of them have links on their pages to
contact them directly. I would encourage
you to either call or e-mail and ask your representative and both of your Senators
to reintroduce this issue. I have
included below the e-mail I sent to my representatives. Yours can be shorter, longer, more eloquent I'm sure. But just say something. Let them know this is an important issue. Use my words if you want. Feel free. Use your own. Whatever works!
Having recently become
aware of the fact that most of the chocolate we buy in the United States is
made with cocoa harvested by child slaves in west Africa I have switched my own
small consumer power to fair trade encouraging friends and family to do the
same. In my research on the issue I have
also discovered that Congress almost did something about this issue in 2001 but
was persuaded against real action.
Although something called the Harkin Engel Protocol was established and
was meant to set a deadline for ending child slavery in cocoa and force the
industry to change. But 12 years later
it has not. I am very interested in
seeing this issue brought before Congress.
It is hard to believe that in 2013 we are still having to work to
eradicate slavery in different parts of the world. The fact that children are stolen from their
homes or lured away with promises of jobs and then forced to work as slaves on
cocoa plantations is deplorable and sickening.
At the very least Congress should
put pressure on the chocolate industry to make good on the many promises they
have made over the twelve years since the passage of the Protocol. At the time they acknowledged the existence
of slavery and the need for reform. Why
has no one held them accountable?
Please reintroduce this issue and help me and
those who are passionate about it bring us one step closer to a world without
slavery.
Thank you for your
time and prompt attention to this important matter.
Elizabeth Grady Harper
Go make the most of this great democracy of ours!
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