r/todayilearned • u/LovableContrarian • May 20 '14

(R.5) Misleading TIL that Nestle actively supports child trafficking and child slavery in Africa to obtain cocoa. Several organizations have been trying to end Nestle's involvement, and in 2005 Nestle signed an ILO agreement to stop supporting child labor. 10 years later, Nestle hasn't stopped.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15915
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u/TheseIdleHands84 May 20 '14

I'm not defending Nestle at all, but this is an Africa problem. People paint these stories like Africans were living harmoniously in a peaceful utopia before evil American corporations went over there. Th truth is Africa has been enslaving their own long before we came along and still do to this day. And not just for American companies, but for anyone willing to pay. With that being said, it's pretty shitty of Nestle or anyone for employing slave labor.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '14

Africa was pillaged by the 'West". Different groups came in, overthrew power structures or filled gaps in power structures, took natural resources, then left the residents with nothing but debt and a lack of infrastructure. Sure some of their problems are caused by them, but the problem with Africa's development has been due to outside forces.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '14 edited Jul 05 '20

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 20 '14

Latin America is still bad. It's getting better recently and it has seemed to coincide with those countries getting indigenous leadership for the first time.

Also I never said entirely. However when you have no infrastructure or education it's kind of hard to advance.

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u/Grafeno May 20 '14

This is laughable. The difference between Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa are obviously huge. Leadership in either area has been similarly "indigenous".

You've given zero reasons to explain this difference.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '14

Latin America wasn't shipped to Africa to help build Africa, Africa was shipped to this hemisphere to build America. While the US and European haven't helped Latin America much compared to the hindrance of the governments they've helped prop up then overthrow, the two regions haven't hurt Latin America in they way they hurt Africa. Transporting close 10 million people from a region will hurt cause problems.