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Today's Idiot | ||
2007-02-14 | ||
Jail me, chocolate-eater urges AMSTERDAM, Feb 9 (Reuters Life!) - A Dutch journalist asked an Amsterdam court on Friday to convict him for eating chocolate, saying by doing so he was benefiting from child slavery on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast. Teun van de Keuken, 35, is seeking a jail sentence to raise consumer awareness and force the cocoa and chocolate industry to take tougher measures to stamp out child labor. "If I am found guilty of this crime, any chocolate consumer can be prosecuted after that. I hope that people would stop buying chocolate and thus hurt the sales of big corporations and make them do something about the problem," van de Keuken said.
Van de Keuken launched his attempt to be charged for eating chocolate two years ago when The journalist traveled to Burkina Faso to track down former child slaves who he said were sold by their impoverished parents or lured by merchants to work on Ivory Coast farms. Van de Keuken said he has now The Netherlands is the biggest importer and processor of cocoa beans in the European Union, which accounts for 40 percent of global cocoa processing. He urged consumers to choose fair trade chocolate but warned it was often difficult to trace the origin of cocoa beans. "I cannot deny that there are issues with child labor but it is totally wrong to call it slavery," said Robert Zehnder, secretary general of the European Cocoa Association (ECA). "We work with governments and NGOs to address the problem." David Zimmer from the CAOBISCO industry association said boycotts of chocolate would hurt farmers in west Africa as 10 million people depended on cocoa for their livelihood.
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Posted by:Free Radical |
#2 BTW, Teun's last name translates to "of the Kitchen". Maybe he should go back there and finish washing the pots and pans. IDIOT. Good selection FR. |
Posted by: GK 2007-02-14 11:44 |
#1 Thanks for hijacking the fight against slavery into the Moonbat Parade. Moron. |
Posted by: Grunter 2007-02-14 11:33 |