CNN Asks 'How Ethical Is Your Easter Basket?'
Four days before the holiest time of the year for Christians, CNN.com actually asked, "How ethical is your Easter basket?"
This was the headline for the video of a CNN Newsroom segment Wednesday about child slaves being used to harvest cocoa in West Africa (video follows with fuller transcript and commentary):
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So before you start buying the Easter chocolate this weekend, something you should consider, is it contributing to child slavery. Turns out that most of the world's cocoa fields are in West Africa. Hundreds of thousands of children are forced to work in those fields. David Mattingly takes us to one of the farms in Ivory Coast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On this farm we find Abdul. He survived three years of work. He's just 10. He earns no wages for his work, he says, just food, the occasional tip from the owner, and the torn clothes on his back. Put in the simplest of terms, Abdul is a child slave.
We move away from the group so he can speak more freely. And through our translator, he tells us his story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he had a choice, he wouldn't work.
MATTINGLY: Abdul says he's from neighboring Burkina Faso. When his father died, he says, a stranger brought him to Ivory Coast. Abdul has never eaten chocolate. He tells us he doesn't even know what cocoa is for.
We met Yacu on the same farm, also from Burkina Faso. "My mother brought me when my father died," he tells me." Yacu insists he's 16, but he looks much younger. His legs bare machete scars from hours clearing the bush. The emotional scars seem much deeper. "I wish I could just go to school," he says, "to learn to read and write." But Yacu says he's never spent a day in school.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: David Mattingly's report is part of CNN's "Freedom Project." It's a commitment to helping end modern day slavery. The bitter truth behind the chocolate in your Easter basket, it is one of the lead stories on CNN's Eatocracy website. Its managing editor, Kat Kinsman, she is joining us from New York.
So, first of all, I mean it's -- a lot of people would not suspect that this is happening, that this is taking place. If you're buying chocolate, how do you know whether or not it's actually contributing to child slavery, like the little boy we saw there?
Certainly, this is a serious matter.
But does CNN have to bring attention to it four days before Easter?
As the network just aired a special about this in January, couldn't it have been sensitive to America's Christians by not addressing it again so close to such a holy day?
Or is that asking too much?
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Comments
Counter Headline
Submitted by the struggler on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 8:35pm.
How ethical is your news program?
up to now I thought I heard
Submitted by jkwtrading on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 8:39pm.
up to now I thought I heard it all from the looney left...
Wait a minute...
Submitted by Uphill on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 8:54pm.
What does the Easter Bunny have to say about this?
He's hopping mad.
Submitted by Jer on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 9:40pm.
Jer
Sounds like they found Wonkas
Submitted by Sude23 on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:08pm.
Sounds like they found Wonkas Factory. Those little guys love putting on a show.
impossible
Submitted by MidAmerica on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 8:58pm.
Only White males engage in slavery.
That's right
Submitted by ant on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:01pm.
I thought only AmeriKKKa was guilty of sin. Someone send Jesse jacksuuuun and rev. Al over to right this injustice stat.......Please!
While they were on the subject of slavery, maybe they could ask why Obama denied funding for the fight against international child sex-trafficking, but we, apparently, have tons of dollars to pour into those wonderful muslim nations.
blacks sold blacks into slavery...
Submitted by MightyMouth on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:33pm.
how else do they get onto the boats?
You won't read this in American history books
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 5:16am.
Africans have been dealing in African (and Middle Eastern) slaves for tens of thousands of years.
White Europeans and Americans, not so much.
Slavery was made illegal in America in the 1860's.
Slavery was still legal in some parts of Africa into the 1950's.
who knows
Submitted by GreenTea on Fri, 04/06/2012 - 1:16am.
idk lol
IPads.... the other unethical liberal idiocy....
Submitted by JeremySmithColl on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 9:13pm.
What about your fancy iPads, you liberal hypocrites... you love those, don't you? Chinese slave labor makes those... and don't give me that about Apple traveling to China to inspect the working conditions because that was nothing but a P/R stunt of biblical proportions...
Dear CNN
Submitted by ant on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:04pm.
My Easter basket, not being a sentient being, has no ethics...sorta like the Congressional Black Caucus.
This just in, you're not
Submitted by LinTaylor on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:06pm.
This just in, you're not allowed to enjoy anything anymore. No, not even that.
My Easter Basket. . .
Submitted by rick.bren on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:14pm.
. . . has no ethics. It has chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, malted milk eggs, and peeps!
Serious matter indeed and once again CNN is seriously wrong.
Submitted by RickTx on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:32pm.
I lived in west Africa for many years and child slavery is indeed a serious problem that should be addressed. However the CNN approach in this story does nothing to help and in fact, may do a great deal of harm, both by worsening the situation of those they are purportedly trying to help and by loading people up with misplaced guilt. First, as difficult as this may be for Americans to believe, Abdul and Yacu may have a pretty good gig compared to a lot of their fellow West Africans. The story suggests that they get regular food, some clothes, and even occasional "tips" for their labor. I knew adults who would have been happy to walk several days for an opportunity at a job with this level of compensation. Secondly, if we reduce the demand for this chocolate, as the oh-so-wise Suzanne and David seem to be suggesting, what do you think will happen to Abdul, Yacu, and others like them? Will they suddenly have the uniforms and school fees needed to begin happily attending school and thereby climb out of their admittedly (by western standards) bleak situations? Hardly, if demand and thereby the farmers income diminishes, the "tips" will be the first to go followed soon by the food and clothing.
Enjoy your Easter chocolate with a good conscience. If you really want to know how to help oppressed and enslaved people in west Africa and throughout the world rise out from under their oppressors, here is a tip: Read "Dead Aid" by Dambisa Moya or "The Poor Will Be Glad" by Greer and Smith.
Happy Easter
Good post,
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:42pm.
Good post, Rick.............very imformative. I kinda figured that the 'answer' was something like what you explained. Why do you think Rush nicknamed these guys the 'drive-by medial'??? They show up, make a story to fit their agenda, and leave - and whatever residue is left afterwards is NOT their problem!!!
And you would think that Boy Baraka would be all over this, right??? Oh..........yeah...........something about Mooooooochelle liking her deep friend Snickers Bars!!!
Give me chocolate
Submitted by Radical1979 on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:54pm.
or give me death.
They better stay far far away from my Easter basket.
I like jelly beans -
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:45pm.
I like jelly beans - especailly the red and orange and yellow ones - although I rarely eat them. But, since it's going to be Easter, I think I'll go (to paraphrase John 'why the long face' Kerry) 'get me some of them thar' jelly beans'!!!
And, yes, I DO know the true meaning of the celebration of Easter.
boycot chocolate?
Submitted by MidAmerica on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:12pm.
Now THAT..., is a war on women.
I could care less as does
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:12pm.
I could care less as does michelle obama.
Four Billion Peeps are made during Easter...
Submitted by MightyMouth on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:13pm.
It's all about Peeps, ignore the Passion of Christ and His Resurrection. Since Democrats are Godless Inhumane baby killers they should love Friday off from the public paid for holiday they enjoy.
What an idiot.
Submitted by Savonarola on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:18pm.
Like she doesn't eat chocolate. Sue you get the Contessa Brewer award.
Really? How ethical is it
Submitted by Soldat44 on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 7:54am.
Really? How ethical is it that you use a hair curler/blower every morning, not just Easter, that was made with child/slave labor in China? Or the coffee that you brew? Or the panties that you wear?
I bet you are more concerned with the chocolate bunnies than you are with all the children that are aborted/murdered every day.
Moron.
So now causing child slavery
Submitted by Pinetree3 on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 8:00am.
So now we're causing child slavery if we eat anything with chocolate in it?
And CNN is accusing Africans
Submitted by Pinetree3 on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 8:05am.
And CNN is accusing Africans of being slavers? Now just how racist is that! Everyone knows only honkies are slavers.
If Abdul had a choice, he wouldn't work.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 9:10am.
Well, come on over Abdul, because you'd really love it here!
BTW, we only buy chocolate that is certified 'Harvested by Free Range Slaves."
The next thing CNN will do
Submitted by I hate marxists on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 9:51am.
Will do a segment around Christmas and complaint that the beards the Santas wear were made by some poor russian children slaved in Afganistan
How ethical is CNN?
Submitted by CobraMan on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 11:45am.
"Nearly all the world’s cacao trees are grown on small, family farms. Almost 90% of cacao bean production comes from farms under 12 acres. "
Source: allchocolate.com
Nearly all cocoa is grown by small farms, also know as family farms. Most family farmers have children, who work the fields, just like you see with rice farmers throughout Asia (How ethical is you Shusi?" There's a question that is yet to be asked!). There's nothing new about this. What IS new is the media's tendency to call it "child slavery." What is it that CNN wants, to end the family framing around the world? Yea, they'll save the children from slavery, all right, and send them straight into starvation! Which leads us to the question: How ethical is CNN?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
i wonder if.......
Submitted by botg on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 4:42pm.
they will reprise this story for halloween?
“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” -- Chief Justice John Roberts
All I can say is
Submitted by panzerakc on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 5:00pm.
"There you go again."
What does the easter bunny,
Submitted by GreenTea on Fri, 04/06/2012 - 1:13am.
What does the easter bunny, easter baskets, and chocolates have to do with the real easter story?