March 03, 2008

Worth a Thousand Words

No due dates were given, simply that the child will be born this coming spring. By most counts, Morocco is also enjoying an economic boom. Official figures show growth skyrocketed to 7.3 percent this past year, up from 1.8 percent in 2005. While few if any economists deny the rise in growth some are accusing, the government of padding the figures with their eyes on next year’s general election. Like nearly every MENA country, Morocco has dealt with its share of problems with militant Islamists: 2006 saw hundreds of arrests of suspected terrorists and members of outlawed Islamist political parties. Fearing that they were not only training but also possibly arming anti-government forces, the government announced this year that military service will no longer be compulsory.

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March 02, 2008

Historian seeks descendants of Josie, Bertha and Sophie - Port Royal ...

He said child labor to support the seafood industry was also pervasive in Louisiana, Mississippi and Maine. "Because of the seafood industry in Charleston and Beaufort, and certainly Savannah, any place where there was a seafood industry, it was very common for those places to hire children and unskilled adults," said Manning. "Families were making so little money that they were unable to support themselves without their children also working, so it was accepted and pervasive, and there were few laws that prohibited it." The Lewis Hine Project started out of Manning's friendship with children's book author Elizabeth Winthrop, who wrote "Counting on Grace," an award-winning, fictional children's novel inspired by Addie Card, a child cotton mill worker in Vermont photographed by Hine.

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March 01, 2008

Buying chocolate can get messy when child labor is in the picture

OAKHURST, Calif. -- For many folks, chocolate is a guilty pleasure. But for eighth-graders at Mountain Home Charter School, a chocolate fund-raiser inspired only guilt. That's because about 70 percent of the world's cocoa -- taken from the cacao tree to make chocolate -- comes from West Africa, where reports of abusive child labor have circulated for years. Alarmed by the evidence, eighth-grader Masha Bluestein hoped to change Mountain Home's fund-raiser for a class trip to Catalina Island. So she and her mother, Cordia Bluestein, pitched an idea to the other parents: Instead of selling any old chocolate, let's choose chocolate that's certified fair trade. The certification, they explained, indicates products made without abusive child labor, such as work that prevents children from attending school, uses hazardous farming practices or includes child slavery.

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February 29, 2008

US to give $5.5M to address child labor problem in RP

The United States will provide $5.5 million or P220 million to combat the worst forms of child labor in the Philippines. In a statement, the US Embassy in Manila said the amount would go to World Vision, Christian Children�s Fund and the Education Research and Development Assistance Foundation to address the education needs of children engaged in or at risk of being victims of abusive child labor practices in the Philippines. �The initiative seeks to remove 18,000 children and prevent another 12,000 children from hazardous work in sugarcane plantations, child domestic work, commercial sexual exploitation, mining and quarrying, garbage scavenging and pyrotechnics,� the embassy said. Child labor refers to the illegal employment of children below 18 years old in hazardous occupations.

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February 28, 2008

Sunflower markets fined for violating child labor, overtime laws

Grocery chain Sunflower Farmers Markets will pay more than $125,000 in overtime wages it owed employees as well as more than $10,000 in fines. The Department of Labor said the organic supermarket, which has three stores in the state, violated child labor laws and also misapplied exemption standards for overtime. Sunflower, based in Colorado, owes money to 78 employees in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada as well as Arizona. The violations were at the Tempe and Phoenix stores. All seven of the child labor law violations happened in Arizona, where employees under the age of 18 worked past 9 p.m. over the summer and one used a box bailer, which minors are allowed to use. Sunflower representatives were not available for comment. .

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February 27, 2008

Democrats clash on health, trade and rival tactics

We know she is eager but it is not clear she is as qualified as she says she is when we look at her record in the senate. She has shown poor judgement repeatedly enabling Bush in his disastrous foreign policies. What Hillary and the democratic leadership fail to understand is that across the country democrats and independents are FURIOUS with Hillary for failing to provide any leadership in opposing the Bush administration. We do not want her to be president. She shows no leadership and no moral courage. She is not even a feminist, having ridden her way to the US Senate on her husband's coat tails… .

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February 26, 2008

Business As A Partner In Addressing Forced Labor

This Fall the Gap withdrew a line of embroidered blouses and ordered an internal investigation after news reports revealed apparent child labor in a Delhi sweatshop. One child, Jivaj, from West Bengal described his experience this way, "Our hours are hard and violence is used against us if we don't work hard enough. This is a big order for abroad, they keep telling us that...I was so tired I felt sick." Gap has publicly reiterated their unequivocal opposition to child labor. In a public private partnership, Gap is now partnering with the Global March Against Child Labor to establish an independent monitoring system for future production of its products, and to examine industry-wide solutions to child labor issues. While Gap's response was swift, the frenzied media attention presents a nightmare scenario for even the best public relations specialist.

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February 25, 2008

US to give $5.5M to address child labor problem in RP

The United States will provide $5.5 million or P220 million to combat the worst forms of child labor in the Philippines. In a statement, the US Embassy in Manila said the amount would go to World Vision, Christian Children�s Fund and the Education Research and Development Assistance Foundation to address the education needs of children engaged in or at risk of being victims of abusive child labor practices in the Philippines. �The initiative seeks to remove 18,000 children and prevent another 12,000 children from hazardous work in sugarcane plantations, child domestic work, commercial sexual exploitation, mining and quarrying, garbage scavenging and pyrotechnics,� the embassy said. Child labor refers to the illegal employment of children below 18 years old in hazardous occupations.

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February 24, 2008

US to give $5.5M to address child labor problem in RP

The United States will provide $5.5 million or P220 million to combat the worst forms of child labor in the Philippines. In a statement, the US Embassy in Manila said the amount would go to World Vision, Christian Children�s Fund and the Education Research and Development Assistance Foundation to address the education needs of children engaged in or at risk of being victims of abusive child labor practices in the Philippines. �The initiative seeks to remove 18,000 children and prevent another 12,000 children from hazardous work in sugarcane plantations, child domestic work, commercial sexual exploitation, mining and quarrying, garbage scavenging and pyrotechnics,� the embassy said. Child labor refers to the illegal employment of children below 18 years old in hazardous occupations.

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February 23, 2008

US to give $5.5M to address child labor problem in RP

The United States will provide $5.5 million or P220 million to combat the worst forms of child labor in the Philippines. In a statement, the US Embassy in Manila said the amount would go to World Vision, Christian Children�s Fund and the Education Research and Development Assistance Foundation to address the education needs of children engaged in or at risk of being victims of abusive child labor practices in the Philippines. �The initiative seeks to remove 18,000 children and prevent another 12,000 children from hazardous work in sugarcane plantations, child domestic work, commercial sexual exploitation, mining and quarrying, garbage scavenging and pyrotechnics,� the embassy said. Child labor refers to the illegal employment of children below 18 years old in hazardous occupations.

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