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What Globalization Does to Children: A Thirteen-Year Old Speaks to Congress

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Democracy Now plays a recording of a speech Craig Kielburger, the thirteen-year old Canadian founder of Free the Children, which he recently presented to a Congressional hearing on the issue of child labor and worldwide exploitation of children. Kielburger recounted many examples of horrific working conditions and discussed specific examples like India, where there are 50 million child laborers, while there are 55 million unemployed adults. Kielburger also outlined the cycles of North-American consumption, and the many ways it leads to factories in developing nations looking for the cheapest possible labor. Kielburger calls for an independent labeling system which would ensure that consumers could buy products that were not made by child labor; his organization is advocating selective buying rather than a boycott that could drastically hurt developing nations.

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