Free Republic

We have to guard against a kind of moral obtuseness where if we don’t see the harm, that means it doesn’t exist. These poor people can’t afford to send their children off to day camp in the summer so they can do archery and go swimming. They can’t afford an academic program so the children’s achievements won’t dissipate over the summer. They can’t afford to have Mom quit work and stay home to watch them, so they bring their children to work. It is not in any way obvious that the children would be better off if their parents made...

SNIPPET: "For all his public activity, Bray has rarely, if ever, discussed his life story in detail. His own MAS biography offers vague descriptions of his work as "a long time civil and human rights advocate." A charismatic African-American convert to Islam, Bray spent this entire decade working for Islamist organizations. Prior to joining MAS, Bray was political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Those jobs have helped him build a growing public profile and given him access to politicians and policy makers. And that may explain his reluctance to discuss his life before political activism. The Investigative...

… The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the U.S. is an extension of an illegal but common practice in Africa. Families in remote villages send their daughters to work in cities for extra money and the opportunity to escape a dead-end life. Some girls work for free on the understanding that they will at least be better fed in the home of their employer. The custom has led to the spread of trafficking, as well-to-do Africans accustomed to employing children immigrate to the U.S. Around one-third of the estimated 10,000 forced laborers in the United States are servants...

Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door... Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family's crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off...

IRVINE, Calif. – Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms. To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair. But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid. Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home....

EDITOR'S NOTE — In Africa, children of the poor are commodities, often traded like cows or donkeys by adults who value their labor. This story on child maids is the third in an occasional series on the exploitation of African children. Each story stands on its own. IRVINE, Calif. (AP) — Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms. To put...

The concept of child workers or slaves is nothing new to Islamic countries such as Yemen, Egypt, and in parts of Africa. Some of these children have to work because of poor economic conditions, others are forced to work and many are beaten to work harder. They are basically treated no better than slaves. Now American Muslims are once again bringing part of the Islamic culture here.

IRVINE, Calif. – Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door. They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn't much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms. To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair. But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid. Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home....

History records that Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups, used to present himself as a soul-brother to the American worker. In his heyday he railed against the "elitist upper class" and established his bona fides by saying, "I come from a poor district of working-class people." Writing in the Washington Times last week, Mr. Weyrich was back in his old rhetorical neighborhood. The subject was Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, and Mr. Weyrich was writing to celebrate "the best record of accomplishment of anyone in the Bush administration." Read closely,...

Clothing retailer Gap Inc. said Sunday that it will convene all of its Indian suppliers to "forcefully reiterate" its prohibition on child labor after a British newspaper found children as young as 10 making Gap clothes at a sweatshop in New Delhi. The Observer newspaper quoted the children as saying they had been sold to the sweatshop by their families in Indian states such as Bihar and West Bengal and would not be allowed to leave until they had repaid that fee. Some, working as long as 16 hours a day to hand-sew clothing, said they were not being paid...

Pumping furiously on a foot treadle in the afternoon heat, six-year-old Sarju Ram is irrigating her impoverished family’s field, improving the crop and – without knowing it – helping environmentally sensitive holiday-makers assuage their guilt over long-haul flights to dream destinations. But Sarju and her four brothers and sisters working flat out in a clump of trees that provide scant shelter from the sun illustrate a growing argument over claims that British environmentalists’ efforts to curb greenhouse emissions are inadvertently fuelling an increase in child labour.

CBS encamped 40 kids in an abandoned New Mexico ghost town for more than a month. The kids performed on camera for more than 14 hours at a stretch, seven days a week, making their own meals. They were filming during the school year, yet no studio teachers were present. They were working on a major television production, yet no parents were on the set. The show is CBS’ upcoming reality series "Kid Nation." When rivals first got wind of the concept, they declared the production an impossible endeavor: From a legal, labor, public relations and logistical standpoint, this show...

There is a certain ritualistic aspect to stories in China like the one this past week about the hundreds of people, many of them teenagers or even younger, who were forced to work under slavelike conditions in the brick kilns of Shanxi Province. First, Chinese readers are horrified by a picture of their country that many say they hardly recognize, then a villain is rounded up, and finally, after a torrent of unusually blunt and emotionally charged news reports and editorials, the matter drops from view, ensuring that the larger issue goes unresolved.

WASHINGTON -- In an early sign of the imagery that may flood the nation's television screens as congressional elections approach this fall, a conservative political group closely aligned with the Bush administration has launched a blitz of television ads to shore up sagging public support for the war in Iraq. The television commercials feature vivid portraits of smoke pouring from the World Trade Center and the aftermath of terrorist attacks in Madrid and London as veterans of the Iraq war and parents of fallen soldiers make the case for continuing the U.S. military campaign in Iraq.

I have recently learned that student attendance at the PTA/PTO-organized book fair, "winter boutique" and other school sales at my 5-year old daughter's kindergarten are mandatory. Yes, mandatory, if you consider the fact that all children, regardless of whether they bring in money or not to shop with are taken to these sales to "browse". In other words, children do not have the option NOT to visit these fairs, and parents do not have the option to either consent or not consent to their child being taken shopping or "browsing" by their teacher. Yes, technically, parents and children have the...

CATALDO, Idaho (AP) — A family that faces thousands of dollars in fines in Washington state because it refused to pay worker's compensation insurance and employed its young children in a house-moving business has moved to Idaho to take advantage of that state's more-lenient child labor laws. "It's less oppressive," said Jude Doty, a 48-year-old house mover, of his decision to come to Cataldo, a tiny community along U.S. Interstate 90, 65 miles east of Spokane, after running afoul of authorities in Yakima starting in 2002. Doty has been fined more than $100,000 for not paying state worker's compensation insurance...

As millions of children look forward to a break from school, millions of oth­ers only wish they could begin. For these children, summer days will not be spent in ballparks and play­grounds, but on battlegrounds or in fields. These children have no time for play. It's all work. And the work is dirty, hard and dangerous. According to the International Labor Organization's (www.ilo.org) global report, "A Future Without Child Labor," 246 million children worldwide are in­volved in child labor, which should be abolished. The study found that 179 mil­lion children ages 5 to 17 are exposed to forms of child...

Should children be allowed to work in sawmills? What if they're Amish? Under federal law, anyone under 18 is forbidden to work in a sawmill. Well, almost anyone. Last year, Congress declared it permissible for a 14-year-old to work in a sawmill if a statute or court ruling exempts him from having to attend school past the eighth grade. That's code for "if he's Amish," and in case you don't get the message, the statute specifies that such a person must be supervised by "an adult member of the same religious sect or division." So if an Amish parent wants...

UN in action call on child labour Huge aid increases are needed to help more than 210 million children around the world who are working full-time, the UN children's fund Unicef has said. Its latest report says many children aged five to 15 are working as slaves, miners, prostitutes and soldiers. Unicef argues the only way to end child labour is to end poverty - and called on rich industrialised nations to give far more in development aid. It says child labour is a scar on the world's conscience in the 21st Century. Children are born, sold and trafficked into...

MILWAUKEE - The superintendent of Milwaukee schools halted a get-out-the-vote program involving students after complaints were raised about its link to a pro-Kerry organization. Superintendent William Andrekopoulos acted late Wednesday, citing a policy that prohibits the district from being a political advocate. His decision came a day after Republicans accused Democrats of using the students for political gain because the program was organized by the Wisconsin Citizen Action Fund, whose parent organization endorsed Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) for president. Students at 33 Milwaukee schools called voters and went door to door in minority neighborhoods and areas with...