Africa’s World of Forced Labor, in a 6-Year-Old’s Eyes (NYT)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/world/africa/29ghana.html?ex=1162699200&en=529547ade1a4986d&ei=5043&partner=EXCITE

By SHARON LaFRANIERE
Published: October 29, 2006

KETE KRACHI, Ghana — Just before 5 a.m., with the sky still dark over Lake Volta, Mark Kwadwo was rousted from his spot on the damp dirt floor. It was time for work.

Shivering in the predawn chill, he helped paddle a canoe a mile out from shore. For five more hours, as his coworkers yanked up a fishing net, inch by inch, Mark bailed water to keep the canoe from swamping.

He last ate the day before. His broken wooden paddle was so heavy he could barely lift it. But he raptly followed each command from Kwadwo Takyi, the powerfully built 31-year-old in the back of the canoe who freely deals out beatings.


Mark Kwadwo, 6, in the small dark room, where he sleeps on the dirt floor and rises before dawn to work on Lake Volta, a two-day trek from his family home. “I don’t like it here,” he whispered to a visitor, out of earshot of his employer.

“I don’t like it here,” he whispered, out of Mr. Takyi’s earshot.

FULL story at link above.

[acmavm]

1. Lovely world we live in, huh? Poor child should be at home with his

parents going to school, not sleeping on a damp dirt floor until he has to go out and slave for a living.

My God, he's six years old.

And people wonder where the discontent and the militancy and the anger comes from in those who are kept out of the world's economy, who live in these conditions.

Americans need to realize that there are more people that they would imagine who live in shelters without running water, indoor toilets, even a bedroom. Some people are still living in caves for God's sakes.

Crap, between this and Crim Son's post I think I'll just go find something else to do for a while.