A Child Labour Situation

Alright. Here's the big one. The "Crème de la Crème" if you will. Here's the situation. You are hired for a job at a big company, (Sony* or something). And during your first day, you find out that they use child labour to manufacture all of their products. What do you do? Well, I would go home and consult and old tattered piece of paper that I received in Year 10. It's called, "Christian Decision Making Model", and behold!!! Here is what happened.





#1. What is the issue and why is it important?
The issue is that, being a christian, you are severely against the idea of child labour. However, you do have bills to pay. And if you do work there, you are supporting a company that exploits children and doesn't care for them. And yet again, you have bills to pay.

#2. Who will be affected by this decision?
If you work, the children will be affected because you will be supporting a company that uses these children as their pets in a way. If you quit, you will be affected because your wallet will be as well.

#3. What are the possible choices and what are the likely consequences of each one?
Possible Choice #1: Keep working. Who cares about the children anyway? It looks like you don't. So why don't you forget about the children and how the are being mistreated. At least you have some money in your pocket.

Possible Choice #2: Quit. You quit your job and tell other people about your ex-employers exploiting ways. You are out of a job, but I'm sure you are more than capable of finding a new one.

#4. What do my family and friends advise?
I'll go ask Mum, be back in a minute... She said that she would quit because she doesn't believe that exploiting children is a moral thing. Now for a friend, who's on Skype... Nobody. Bugger. So I'll ask my sister. If the income was good enough, she would stay, but she would still not agree with the company's exploits.

#5. What is suggested in the words and teachings of Jesus? Is there something in the Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes that relates?
I believe that I already covered this, but for the sake of redundancy, I shall present the following:

The Commandment: "Thou shalt not steal"
The Beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

I do believe that that was all that really related to child labour. I've probably missed something.

#6. Do any of the virtues of faith, hope, love, wise judgment, courage, justice and wholeness relate to this situation?
When I think about it, hope, justice, and wise judgment relate to the situation. Hope, because (if you quit) your message will be recognized and maybe the company will be boycotted. Maybe.
Justice, because I hear that there isn't enough of it. And if you do quit, you will help get more of it.
Wise Judgment, because your decision depends on it.

#7. What does the Church teach about the issue? (Catechism)
The church doesn't really seem to have a view on the situation. And if they do, they have hidden it well. Or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.

#8. Prayer for guidance
I found this little gem. Creator God! We thank you for the gift of life. We thank you for the millions of children in this world who are created in your image. We thank you for their parents. We seek your blessing on each of these children because every child is special. May we understand your love and kindness, care and concern for these children. Accept our prayers in the name of your son Jesus who came into this world as a babe in the manger. Amen. Lovely.

#9. Write your decision
Well, my personal decision would be to leave the job. I probably would have stayed had I not done all this work and I probably would have dismissed the child labour as another thing that happened. But, this project has really opened my eyes. Probably opened Cookie's as well. So, thankyou Mrs. Morrisey for this project

What Does The Vatican Say?

I believe that the Vatican would take all the points, like the commandments and the beatitudes and what Jesus would do, into account before making their decision. Obviously, with the overwhelming evidence that has already been presented, the Vatican's decision would be a definitive NO to the idea of child labour. The process that they would take however would be different. They would take a longer time to get a final answer because they would explore every possibility to every answer. I mean, it's the Vatican. They can take as long as they want, because it is the Vatican.

What Do The Ten Commandments Say?

The most relevant commandment for Child Labour would probably have to be, "Thou shalt not steal". I think that this is relevant because child labour is stealing kids futures away.

Our Child Labour Video

Here's our video about child labour

What Would Jesus Do?

Since I did not know Jesus personally, I can only give a stereotypical answer to the above question. I believe that Jesus would probably try to sort it out by raising awareness and sending a message all over the world about the wrongdoing involved in this act. He would probably use the internet and other media services that are available to him to try and spread the word even further. Also, the fact that it is the Jesus would probably help his influence as well.

What Do The Beatitudes Say?

The beatitudes are the messages that Jesus gave during the "Sermon on the Mount". They contain the ideas to be followed when making a decision. When it comes to Child Labour, the most relevant beatitude in my mind would be, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This relates to the topic at hand, because it is the beatitude related to poverty. The beatitude says that people that are involved in child labour, will be rewarded in heaven for all their hard work down on earth.

Fact Sheet

It's a lovable fact that everybody loves facts. In spirit of this, the only way to read facts is to listen to a very factual song. Before reading anything factual, could you please start the song that appears at the bottom of the picture.

There are 218 million child labourers in the world.

14% of all children between 5-17 are involved in child labour.

Every year 22,000 children die in work related activities.

Girls are more likely to be child labourers than boys are.

The highest proportion of child labourers is in sub-Saharan Africa, where 49 million are involved in work.

30% of all children in the least developed countries are involved in child labour.

Some children are forced to work for 18 hours or more a day.

1 in 6 children work in child labour.

73 million working children are under the age on 10

8.4 million children are trapped in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities. 1.2 million of these children have been trafficked.

500,000 children are someway involved in child labour in the Oceania region. (Not including Australia)

70.4% percent of all children are involved in the Agriculture, hunting,
forestry and fishing industries.

Child labour can be caused by the following factors: Poverty, Inadequete school facilities, Family size, & Immoral descisions.

Roughly 122.3 million children ages 5 to 14 are economically active in Asia and the Pacific, 49.3 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 5.7 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 13.4 million in other regions.

The number of children involved in armed conflicts has increased to about 300,000 over the past decade.

I think I have enough facts for now, I might add some more every now and again

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A game has been found that relates to the topic at hand. It is by no means a definitive source of information, rather a fun way to learn. Edutainment if you will. Much like this picture to the left.

Child Labour, A Summary

Child labour is the practice of employing under aged children to work for minimal or no pay in conditions seen as unsavoury to modern work conditions. It is a terrible thing to think about, as people such as Taima (pictured left) won't live to see their 18th birthday. The practice of child labour is illegal in many countries. However, countries that don't have or have a fledgling government, do not have the resources or the no how to stop such an act from occurring.

Child labour can be categorized into a number of different activities. These activities include: factory work, mining, prostitution, quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents' business, having one's own small business (for example selling food), and other odd jobs. There is an estimated 218 million children between the ages of 5-17 that are involved in these types of activities. Most of these children are from very poor households and rural areas.

Child labour itself has many disadvantages, but also surprisingly has advantages as well. Even though the disadvantages greatly outnumber the advantages, the advantages still exist. Here are a couple of these disadvantages & advantages:

Advantage #1: It's cheap. Very cheap. Big companies (Including Apple Inc. with the manufacturing of the iPhone) can pay incredibly small amounts for the manufacturing of their products.

Advantage #2: It provides a small income for the family that the child belongs to. It may not be much but it will help with the family's general well being.

Disadvantage #1: Whilst there are advantages to a family, there is a major disadvantage to the child as they will not get an education, and once they get older or are looking for a new job, they are only trained in one field.

Disadvantage #2: It's dangerous. Children can be seriously hurt or even killed thanks to the extremely poor work conditions that they have to work in.

One thing that is undeniably, is the fact that child labour is still a large international problem that probably won't be resolved any time soon.