How many slaves work for you?
LastSixtySix
Posts: 352 Member
Take the survey at http://slaveryfootprint.org/my-footprint and then report your findings here (takes about 10 to 15 min).. How do you feel about that? Will you be inclined to take any action to decrease or. . .heaven forbid, increase. . .that number and, if so, what?
My slavery score is 50! And that's after I've nearly emptied my closets of size 20 and above clothes!!! I'm definitely going to take some action to decrease that score. It'll never be perfect, however, as I am beholden to the modern western world and its electronics.
Excerpted from Wired.Com (To see the entire article go to: http://www.wired.com/business/2011/09/slavery-footprint-app/):
"A few hundred years ago, it was easy to determine one’s slavery footprint: step out on the porch and count the laborers. Today, millions of slaves make your clothes, food and electronics, but they are hidden halfway around the world: Uzbek children pick cotton for your shirts, Brazilian men harvest your sugar cane, and Congolese boys mine the raw materials that end up in your smartphone.
"So, how many slaves work for you?
"Slavery Footprint answers this question, breaking down your footprint by the products you own and the regions where forced labor was employed in their production. Justin Dillon, the 42-year-old founder of the non-profit organization Slavery Footprint, hopes the application will serve as a wake-up call to consumers unknowingly complicit in slavery.
“We’re talking about people that are being forced to work without any pay, under threat of violence,” Dillon told Wired.com. “If they do walk away, either they or their family are in physical danger.”
"Dillon directed Call + Response, a music-infused documentary that explores human trafficking and modern-day slaves, or what he calls “the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets.”
"After the U.S. State Department caught wind of the film, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons offered Dillon the opportunity to helm its Slavery Footprint project, for which years of research had already taken place. “Literally what they said was, ‘Here’s the name, here’s some funding, make sure you use vetted data’ — that’s it,” said Dillon. “That was a year ago.”
Slavery Footprint asks questions about your lifestyle and consumer habits: How large is your living space? What kind of food do you like? Do you drink wine? The app contains information on over 400 products broken down into their raw materials, from borax and beryllium to coffee and cornstarch. Then, based on vetted data from the Trafficking in Persons Report, The Freedom House index and three others, it assigns each product with a score — in essence, the number of slave workers used in the gathering and combination of the source materials."
Kinda fun in a sicko sort of way! Serious business though.
-Debra
My slavery score is 50! And that's after I've nearly emptied my closets of size 20 and above clothes!!! I'm definitely going to take some action to decrease that score. It'll never be perfect, however, as I am beholden to the modern western world and its electronics.
Excerpted from Wired.Com (To see the entire article go to: http://www.wired.com/business/2011/09/slavery-footprint-app/):
"A few hundred years ago, it was easy to determine one’s slavery footprint: step out on the porch and count the laborers. Today, millions of slaves make your clothes, food and electronics, but they are hidden halfway around the world: Uzbek children pick cotton for your shirts, Brazilian men harvest your sugar cane, and Congolese boys mine the raw materials that end up in your smartphone.
"So, how many slaves work for you?
"Slavery Footprint answers this question, breaking down your footprint by the products you own and the regions where forced labor was employed in their production. Justin Dillon, the 42-year-old founder of the non-profit organization Slavery Footprint, hopes the application will serve as a wake-up call to consumers unknowingly complicit in slavery.
“We’re talking about people that are being forced to work without any pay, under threat of violence,” Dillon told Wired.com. “If they do walk away, either they or their family are in physical danger.”
"Dillon directed Call + Response, a music-infused documentary that explores human trafficking and modern-day slaves, or what he calls “the world’s 27 million dirtiest secrets.”
"After the U.S. State Department caught wind of the film, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons offered Dillon the opportunity to helm its Slavery Footprint project, for which years of research had already taken place. “Literally what they said was, ‘Here’s the name, here’s some funding, make sure you use vetted data’ — that’s it,” said Dillon. “That was a year ago.”
Slavery Footprint asks questions about your lifestyle and consumer habits: How large is your living space? What kind of food do you like? Do you drink wine? The app contains information on over 400 products broken down into their raw materials, from borax and beryllium to coffee and cornstarch. Then, based on vetted data from the Trafficking in Persons Report, The Freedom House index and three others, it assigns each product with a score — in essence, the number of slave workers used in the gathering and combination of the source materials."
Kinda fun in a sicko sort of way! Serious business though.
-Debra
0
Replies
-
awe i only have 40
gonna head to Target 2moro!0 -
Cute. I am at 95. You would think with that many slaves I wouldn't have to mow my own lawn :ohwell: .0
-
33. Electronics is my weakness, also beef. God, that's sad. And I'm poor for an American and own very little.0
-
I got 430
-
I have 26. Apparently I own too much underwear?0
-
Mine is 50.0
-
Cute. I am at 95. You would think with that many slaves I wouldn't have to mow my own lawn :ohwell: .
"Cute" is NOT the emotion this questionairre is aiming for! :noway: And don't you want the exercise calories for the lawn mowing???
You have to earn those - no slave can do it for you, silly.
-Debra0 -
Cute. I am at 95. You would think with that many slaves I wouldn't have to mow my own lawn :ohwell: .
"Cute" is NOT the emotion this questionairre is aiming for! :noway: And don't you want the exercise calories for the lawn mowing??? You have to earn those - no slave can do it for you, silly.
-Debra
The 4 rug rats that eat my food and spend my money did me in! It was only 96 degrees today so I mowed. Lost about 3 lbs in water. Good times. :happy:0 -
the more i think about this the more i am getting mad. i have been supporting all these slaves for quite some time and never once have a gotten a "thank you" for being benevolent.0
-
76. Shouldn't at least ONE of these f*cking slaves be blowing me?0
-
31.
I have an embarrassingly low number of clothes.0 -
Hey, does mine get cut in half becuase I answered for me AND the Missus? I means she can't hardly be doing something like this when she's a wrasslin' me up some vittles.0
-
510
-
57. That was an incredible waste of time and I would guess it to be inaccurate and biased as well.0
-
57. That was an incredible waste of time and I would guess it to be inaccurate and biased as well.
Really? There a tons of sources, including our own state department, for the treatment of "lower" class humanity in this global economy. I'd suggest start with the cotton industry in the Uzebekstain that sacrafices not only it's workers health and lives on the alter of greed, but also drained the 4,000 year old Aral Sea.
The facts are all around. You can read them for yourself and then make up your own mind instead of reading something political into it.
-Debra0 -
57. That was an incredible waste of time and I would guess it to be inaccurate and biased as well.
why did you take the test? did you REALLY think it was going to be accurate?0 -
Pretty much if you don't want to run around naked or starve to death, according to that thing, there isn't anything you can do. It doesn't ask about where you shop for food or clothes or anything like that.0
-
59 eek0
-
Pretty much if you don't want to run around naked or starve to death, according to that thing, there isn't anything you can do. It doesn't ask about where you shop for food or clothes or anything like that.
What this shows is that it doesn't matter what store we buy things or food in, in a global economy the real "source" of origin in where and how raw materials are made. Those are things consummers don't see nor does the industrial machine running the consummerism show want you to see that. Good survey's like this reveal "the man" or slaves behind the curtain.
-Debra0 -
I think most people are aware of that, though. So what's the solution? We stop wearing clothes and live in the woods without even a tent?Pretty much if you don't want to run around naked or starve to death, according to that thing, there isn't anything you can do. It doesn't ask about where you shop for food or clothes or anything like that.
What this shows is that it doesn't matter what store we buy things in, in a global economy the real "source" of origin in where and how raw materials are made. Those are things consummers don't see nor does the industrial machine running the consummerism show want you to see that. Good survey's like this reveal "the man" or slaves behind the curtain.
-Debra
I guess my point is, working to stop this is a good idea and people being aware is a good idea, but this quiz serves only to make us feel guilty over something we can't do anything about immediately.
And if you're buying clothes made with raw materials that are NOT from those places (and, yes, that's possible), that isn't even taken into account.
The quiz also seems to assume that we all contribute to human trafficking and sexual slavery. I can guarantee I do not contribute to sexual slavery.0 -
Cute. I am at 95. You would think with that many slaves I wouldn't have to mow my own lawn :ohwell: .
"Cute" is NOT the emotion this questionairre is aiming for! :noway: And don't you want the exercise calories for the lawn mowing??? You have to earn those - no slave can do it for you, silly.
-Debra
Why mow the lawn if we can't count it as exercise...
Oh wait different thread. 0 -
I think most people are aware of that, though. So what's the solution? We stop wearing clothes and live in the woods without even a tent?Pretty much if you don't want to run around naked or starve to death, according to that thing, there isn't anything you can do. It doesn't ask about where you shop for food or clothes or anything like that.
What this shows is that it doesn't matter what store we buy things in, in a global economy the real "source" of origin in where and how raw materials are made. Those are things consummers don't see nor does the industrial machine running the consummerism show want you to see that. Good survey's like this reveal "the man" or slaves behind the curtain.
-Debra
I guess my point is, working to stop this is a good idea and people being aware is a good idea, but this quiz serves only to make us feel guilty over something we can't do anything about immediately.
And if you're buying clothes made with raw materials that are NOT from those places (and, yes, that's possible), that isn't even taken into account.
The quiz also seems to assume that we all contribute to human trafficking and sexual slavery. I can guarantee I do not contribute to sexual slavery.
I agree with this point of view... at this point, short of make all of our goods from the ground up.... literally... there isn't much we can do. We can do our best but in this global economy that we as a society and a human race so strived for in the last 100 years or so, there is only so much we can do. And I have seen this questionaire before.0 -
Pretty much if you don't want to run around naked or starve to death, according to that thing, there isn't anything you can do. It doesn't ask about where you shop for food or clothes or anything like that.
What this shows is that it doesn't matter what store we buy things in, in a global economy the real "source" of origin in where and how raw materials are made. Those are things consummers don't see nor does the industrial machine running the consummerism show want you to see that. Good survey's like this reveal "the man" or slaves behind the curtain.
-Debra
I think most people are aware of that, though. So what's the solution? We stop wearing clothes and live in the woods without even a tent?
I guess my point is, working to stop this is a good idea and people being aware is a good idea, but this quiz serves only to make us feel guilty over something we can't do anything about immediately.
And if you're buying clothes made with raw materials that are NOT from those places (and, yes, that's possible), that isn't even taken into account.
The quiz also seems to assume that we all contribute to human trafficking and sexual slavery. I can guarantee I do not contribute to sexual slavery.
Lots of assumptions made here. First, it is assumed that most of us are aware of our contribution to the slave trade in the global economy. Second, that the slave trade is mostly sexual. And, third, that guilt is the main purpose of this awareness.
I disagree on all points. You may be conscious and good for you, most people however are not. It behooves us when we are aware of something that we encourage others who may not be as cognizant to take the blinders off. Surveys like this do that in gentle fun ways. Those unaware might intuit something but they have no conscious awareness of what is bothering them and they get sidetracked and never follow through. Guilt may be one byproduct of growing awareness but if it stops there and constructive action is not used to assuage and make right then that would be useless. This survey intends to unveil and then gently encourage positive, constructive action. That's all and, in this global economic system that we are all born into and have few choices regarding, it is enough.
-Debra0
This discussion has been closed.