The recent judgement at the Supreme Court on the 17th June 2021, which was a case against Nestle and Cargill in concern with the child labour, slave labour and other horrific workload of the cocoa producing farmers in West Africa who supplies the needed cocoa for the production of these multi-national corporation and big-businesses world wide.
Both Nestle and Cargill is huge corporation who has massive profits. They earn money every seconds and is so big that their reach is substantial everywhere. That is why this case was significant. Not that it was a shocking result. Because, it is only showing the true values of the United States and that the Corporations are mattering more than people. The U.S. was built on slave trade and on slavery. Therefore, having court validating it in 2021 isn’t that absurd.
The U.S. Supreme Court shows that it doesn’t value lives or human rights.. They are justifying child labour and child slavery on the plantations, the farms in West Africa. The U.S. Courts rather defend the big corporations, than finding remedies or means to shield the weak. The ones who suffer so they the judges can drink their hot chocolate and eat their Lion bars after finishing the trial.
Well, we are in 2021 and the farmers of Ivory Coast, Ghana and elsewhere are far from saved. The Western African nations better start legislation, programs and use their means to stop this. The U.S. Courts will not save them. The U.S. will only come with stern recommendations and plea to the United Nations to ratify international laws. However, the U.S. will not impose international laws on U.S. based corporations or on company directives taken by U.S. nationals. No, they will only dwell on that if it appears to hurt a farmer in Alabama.
This sort of judgement only shows that the U.S. will not come to save the world. They are only coming with their corporations to earn profits and indulge on the natural resources of others. The capacity of Ivory Coast and Ghana is how they can counter this. Nigeria and Cameroon should decide this. If these nations was wise. They would form an alliance, a collective effort and ensure they trade on their demands and needs. Not only having to comply every single corporation or their entities. As they will only try to get it for the least price and sell it to the customer by as much as they can.
They need to consider to do something. As the U.S. is no caring. They don’t value the farmers, their plight or the work environment. They only care about the corporations and their responsibilities. Which is clearly not stop child labour or child slavery. The U.S. Supreme Court couldn’t care less.
That is why the West African nations, the Cocoa Producing Republics needs to take the matters into their own hands. Make legislation forcing the ones buying cocoa to comply with just means. Pay the farmers a decent price, ensure their ability run their farms after certain standards and not allow child labour/slavery. That should be easy to and the elites of the Republic’s would help to benefit thousands of farmers across the region. They would get better paid, safer workplaces and their children get educated, instead of toiling around working for a unforgiving international corporation who doesn’t see them or doesn’t value their work.
That is the gist of this. These rich international corporations have all the money of the world. They have the possibility to make a difference. They might even get some of their products registered as “fair trade” and other certifications. However, they are still not stopping the ancient practices of having kids working on the fields. They are not using their profits or their wealth to make a difference.
No, they rather live in mansions and enjoy the perks of the world without any concern of how they made this money. That’s what they do and the sweet taste of chocolate is feeding their pockets, but they cannot even give the poor, the ones in need or secure the future for the kids of the farmers. Because, the only thing these greedy guts see, is the bottom-line and their ends. Peace.
MinBane 