Big news today: sweatshops exist. And they’re working in India, of all places. Oh, the humanity! Yes, 12-16 year olds were actually working and earning money. The British newspaper was full of condemnation. Why? Because we simply cannot have 14 year old working and earning a living. That’s not right! Instead, someone who is the tender age of 14 is supposed to be locked in a sterile building all day with others who are the exact same chronological age (even when different in mental ages). And they’re supposed to be getting free condoms and birth control pills so they can have sex all will without consequences. We’re supposed to be teaching them that homosexuality is normal and Christianity is bad. At least that what we do with children that age in America.

What ever happened to having feelings for other cultures? What about respect for other people and the way they live? Who are we to tell another culture what’s right and wrong? After all, if the people of India think it’s okay to beat children who refuse to work, who are we to tell them they’re wrong?

We are told, daily, that you cannot condemn a culture or religion for their beliefs. We’re told that all cultures and religions are exactly as valid as every other culture or religion. We’re told that we must accept the differences that other cultures bring — even when those cultures bring death and beheading to places they have never been. We have to accept and honor those who are different, simply because they are different, even if they want us dead. But now we have another culture that apparently believes in hard work for youngsters, and now the media wants us to condemn them. Why is that?

I find it strange that when a Palestinian child is dressed up in bombs and explosives that we are to support him and feel sorry for his family; however, when an Indian child is working and producing, but in less than perfect conditions, we’re supposed to be angry. Perhaps the media is more interested in framing anyone who produces and works as evil, while those who are destructive are supposed to be honored. Good thing we have the formerly mainstream media around to let us know who we’re supposed to condemn.

Said Ogre @ 6:01 am | Permalink   

1. The irony is devastating Ogre, well done!

   Comment by GM — 10/29/2007 @ 7:32 pm

---

2. I guess we’re just not supposed to notice — we’re supposed to just accept what we’re told.

   Comment by Ogre — 10/29/2007 @ 7:41 pm

---

3. You don’t even bother to try and be coherent anymore, huh? I guess when an entire political movement is completely discredited the dead-enders huddle together talking weird and patting each other on the back.

   Comment by yootoo — 10/30/2007 @ 12:53 am

---

4. Perhaps the media is more interested in framing anyone who produces and works as evil, while those who are destructive are supposed to be honored.

   That sentence encapsulates precisely what is occurring in the world today. Thanks for the post.

   Comment by xformed — 10/30/2007 @ 7:48 am

---

5. If that’s true, that is indeed scary.

   Comment by Ogre — 10/30/2007 @ 8:02 am

---

6. I gotta admit, it takes some talent to come up with opinions as insane and disgusting as these. So, Ogre and xformed and GM are in FAVOR of forced child labor. Of 10-year-old kids being sold into indentured servitude. I’m sure these gentleman read the following quote:

   “The Observer quoted one boy identified only as Jivaj as saying that child employees who cried or did not work hard enough were hit with a rubber pipe or had oily cloths stuffed into their mouths”

   …and thought, “Why are they coddling these employees? Why aren’t they hitting them with STEEL pipes? And exactly how oily are those cloths? Not oily enough!”

   The word “scumbag” is one that is used too often in our discourse. In this case, it is the mot juste. Ogre, GM, xformed–you guys are total scumbags.

   Comment by yootoo — 10/30/2007 @ 12:23 pm

---

7. from now on I vow to stop propagating the evil in this world.

   I refuse to be productive.

   I henceforth demand that hillary clinton adopt me so I can sit on my ass and not be evil by working.

   Hey..actually I may very well sue hillary for not adopting me and taking care of me……what with all the money she takes from illegal sources she could very well afford to let me sit on my ass all day and pay for my internet connection…..I may have to cultivate an addiction to twinkies to justify it but hey, take one for the team huh?

   Comment by Kender — 11/1/2007 @ 8:28 pm

---

8. Yootoo, let me try and respond to your comment in the same manner in which you responded to the post:

   Why do you despise people who work? Why do you have a deep-seated hatred for GM and are plotting to have him assassinated?

   Comment by Ogre — 11/4/2007 @ 9:51 am

---

9. That’s another thing they have in common with nazi germany…wanting to have people with differences of opinion assassinated.

   That’s why they were selling t-shirts of Bush with a bullethole in his head…

   Comment by Cao — 11/4/2007 @ 10:06 am

---

10. I’m trying to think what’s more profoundly dishonest–that Ogre believes that my opposition to forced child labor makes me “despise people who work”, or his (and Cao’s) pathetic attempt to distract by saying that I am plotting to have GM “assassinated”. When of course I said no such thing in my comment about his post. Nice lie, nice try.

    You’re all either too stupid or too morally bankrupt to understand that selling 10-year-olds into forced labor camps is a BAD thing. Either way, my contempt for you is wholly justified.

    Comment by yootoo — 11/4/2007 @ 7:42 pm

---

11. I can see you still don’t get it. My comment in response to you was as far-fetched as your original comment.

    But then perhaps you honestly do not understand. If that’s the case, I’ll try and explain a little:

    This post had nothing to do with child labor. As GM pointed out, the post was pointing out the irony of the PC crowd in the media.

    Comment by Ogre — 11/4/2007 @ 8:33 pm

---

12. From Ogre’s comment above, his post had “nothing to do with child labor”. Yet he links to a story about how the Gap was using child labor in India, and his response to that story is to say, “Oh, the humanity! Yes, 12-16 year olds were actually working and earning money. The British newspaper was full of condemnation. Why? Because we simply cannot have 14 year old working and earning a living. That’s not right!”

    Instead, someone who is the tender age of 14 is supposed to be locked in a sterile building all day with others who are the exact same chronological age (even when different in mental ages)”.

    So, kids shouldn’t be in school…they should be out earning a living. In a sweatshop. Where they work 16-hour shifts and receive no pay because they’re still “trainees”.

    At the end of his post, Ogre writes, “however, when an Indian child is working and producing, but in less than perfect conditions, we’re supposed to be angry.”

    Yes, this post had nothing to do with child labor. Ogre reads a story about 10-year-old boys being sold into servitude and worked like dogs and beaten and abused, and he writes that this living hell was merely “less than perfect conditions” and expresses astonishment that “we’re supposed to be angry” as kids being treated this way. I think I called Ogre a scumbag in a previous comment–I was WAY too easy on him.

    Ogre reads this story, and his reaction isn’t horror at how these kids are mistreated, or the fact that the Gap was selling clothing made in these sweatshops…no, the light bulb flickers dimly in his mind and he thinks that this story points out the “irony of the PC crowd in the media”. That this makes no sense isn’t surprising–Ogre obviously doesn’t know what the word “irony” means.

    He also writes in his post, “We are told, daily, that you cannot condemn a culture or religion for their beliefs.”

    Who tells us that? When? No links? Or is this just your typical pathetic white-male victimization at work?

    Ogre also writes, “I find it strange that when a Palestinian child is dressed up in bombs and explosives that we are to support him and feel sorry for his family”.

    I find it strange too, as I don’t know of anyone who supports suicide bombing. Nor anyone who thinks that suicide bombing is an acceptable activity for a child. And, of course, Ogre provides no evidence for this idiotic statement.

    If you want to point out the “irony of the PC crowd in the media”, why not write a post showing how specific articles and/or writers showed their hypocrisy? As I do to the writers at this site? If the best you can do is link to a story about forced child labor and think that’s ironic, you’re really desperate.

    Comment by yootoo — 11/4/2007 @ 9:04 pm

---

13. It’s unfortunate that some people are so thick that you have to sit down and explain it to them…it’s like a grownup explaining a joke to a child…

    Comment by Cao — 11/5/2007 @ 6:51 pm

---

14. Like I mentioned — it’s possible that (s)he just didn’t understand what I was writing about.

    Comment by Ogre — 11/5/2007 @ 8:30 pm

---

15. What kind of yammering moron are you?

    He starts it off with “big news today: sweat shops exist“.

    And I’ll repeat it, for you since you found it necessary to post a many-word practically incoherent response: ‘big news today: SWEAT SHOPS EXIST”.

    and…

    ….a Palestinian child is dressed up in bombs and explosives that we are to support him and feel sorry for his family; however, when an Indian child is working and producing, but in less than perfect conditions, we’re supposed to be angry. Perhaps the media is more interested in framing anyone who produces and works as evil, while those who are destructive are supposed to be honored. Good thing we have the formerly mainstream media around to let us know who we’re supposed to condemn.

    Couldn’t be much clearer than that…

    Comment by Cao — 11/5/2007 @ 8:49 pm

---

16. Yootoo, it would appear to me that you’re just looking for something to be offended about. I, GM, and Cao have all explained the post to you. We’ve clearly explained that you’re simply reading something that isn’t there. I don’t know why you insist on reading what’s not there. What you’re doing would be the same as me reading you comment and then asking you why you’re not commenting and posting outrage about the ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

    I’m pointing out that the media seems to only complain about certain types of things — and contradicts itself often when it say that we’re supposed to “celebrate” multiculturalism and accept ANYTHING any other culture does. If you need links for examples of that, perhaps you should get out more, because nearly any page of any daily newspaper in this country does that.

    I just wonder why they’re outraged at this situation, but not at so many others where much more harm is being done.

    Comment by Ogre — 11/5/2007 @ 9:01 pm

---

17. Cao writes, “It’s unfortunate that some people are so thick that you have to sit down and explain it to them…it’s like a grownup explaining a joke to a child…”

    I know, Cao, I know. Dealing with Ogre is SUCH a trial.

    Cao then shows off her own yawning ignorance by writing, “What kind of yammering moron are you? (meaning me)

    He starts it off with “big news today: sweat shops exist“.

    Yes, Ogre admits that sweat shops exist. And then he says that they’re GOOD thing! After all, he writes, “when an Indian child is working and producing, but in less than perfect conditions, we’re supposed to be angry”. He’s SUPPORTING those sweatshops! Hence my calling him a scumbag.

    At no point have Ogre, Cao or GM come straight out and said, “Third world children being sold into slavery is a bad thing”. They think they’re making a sophisticated point about media bias. They are, as always, wrong. They’re also making that nonsensical point at the expense of abused children. Well done. Good luck looking at yourself in the mirror in the morning. Well, I guess that’s easier when you have no morals and no conscience.

    Comment by yootoo — 11/6/2007 @ 12:12 am

---

18. Yootoo, I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt. I tried to explain myself and the post to you. But now you’re sounding much like a common troll — you are deciding what I am thinking. You don’t know me, you don’t know anything about me — so I’m quite sure you cannot read my mind. Anyone who claims to be doing so really fits the category of troll.

    At no time did I mention anything about sweatshops being good. At no time did I support sweatshops. But then you know that now, and you’re just making up crap because you want to. Yes, that’s being a troll. You’re calling people names because you personally disagree with a position that YOU MADE UP for someone else. Wouldn’t it be easier to just open up notepad on your computer and make up positions for others and then disagree with them?

    I have no problem with disagreement, but you are factually incorrect and trying to read my mind. I’ve tried to explain my position and you’ve deliberately ignored me. I cannot reason with those who refuse to reason. Feel free to come back and disagree on facts or positions. Until then, good day.

    Comment by Ogre — 11/6/2007 @ 9:45 am

---

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Line and paragraph breaks automatic, website trumps email, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website