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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLetter from Chinese Laborer Pleading for Help Found in Halloween Decorations
Julie Keith was unpacking some of last year's Halloween decorations when she stumbled upon an upsetting letter wedged into the packaging.
Tucked in between two novelty headstones that she had purchased at Kmart, she found what appeared to be a letter from the Chinese laborer, who had made the decoration, pleading for help.
The letter reads: "Sir, if you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here who are under the persicution of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever."
"I was so frustrated that this letter had been sitting in storage for over a year, that this person had written this plea for help and nothing had come of it." Julie Keith told Yahoo! Shine. "Then I was shocked. This person had probably risked their life to get this letter in this package."
The letter describes the conditions at the factory: "People who work here have to work 15 hours a day without Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays. Otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark. Nearly no payment (10 yuan/1 month)." That translates to about $1.61 a month.
The rest: http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/letter-chinese-laborer-pleading-help-found-halloween-decorations-202400773.html
msongs
(67,405 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)whoa...
ProfessionalLeftist
(4,982 posts)..to labor / workers in this country. That IS what we're competing with as far as wages and treatment of workers. Don't believe for a second that if Republicans could have labor treated the same in the US, they wouldn't do it. Because that is exactly what they're pushing for.
cui bono
(19,926 posts)Look what they've done to retirement funds. Flat out stolen them. And they didn't need the money but you can bet the people they stole it from do.
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)Raine
(30,540 posts)RedCloud
(9,230 posts)And Chairman Mao rolling over in his grave.
1monster
(11,012 posts)right up there with Stalin and Hitler when it comes to death tolls. Let him roll in his grave if he wants, but it would be extremely hypocritical of him.
Last Stand
(472 posts)is why we need FAIR trade and not this free trade bullshit. It would give these poor workers half a chance at having a decent life.
This is also why I will not buy cheap China crap knowing full well I am essentially supporting a system wherein our country is subcontracting slavery.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)WALMART knows these are the conditions. They are paying the wages. Our Congress knows this is going on.
In a sense, every person who shops at WALMART knows this.
Additionally, WALMART is spending heavily to control the narrative and candidates in our elections. They (and a tiny group of fellow billionaires) are the "employers" of Norquist, Rove, Luntz etc.
The outrage of what's going on here is actually screaming to heaven and virtually every aspect of our own country is complicit.
duhneece
(4,112 posts)Amazed that it made it public (was it a liberal who found it?)...is it real (I imagine so)?....what can I do to change things?
world wide wally
(21,743 posts)"keep people out" because they wanted to get in on the deal so bad
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)Not that I doubt that people are being exploited. I just very much doubt that a Chinese worker would do something like this. First of all, they would know it was pointless...at the outset.
One letter to the ahem World Human Rights Foundation lol...yeah that supreme authority...describing shocking conditions...that pretty much everyone already knows exists...and apparently do not care...is going to change anything. uh huh.
I think someone found a piece of stationary with some Chinese characters on it and set off on a quest for their 15 minutes.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Prison, Long Kesh, in Northern Ireland, written in tiny print on toilet paper also asking for help as political prisoners were being tortured in that shameful place. But it turned out they were true.
People also doubted the early reports of letters coming from a woman in Abu Ghraib also begging for help, and still might, had one brave American soldier not released the videos proving that the woman did exist, that she was being tortured and raped and that she too probably risked her life when she sent that letter out through the prison walls.
This is not at all an unusual way for oppressed people to try to get help from the outside world. It's actually a very old way. Do you doubt the conditions he describes or that he put the letter in the package? What is it you doubt?
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)their life condition.
We just don' t care.
Why would it be asking for the finder to appeal to help from imaginary entity with....an absolute laughable lack of any authority to do....what to halt the situation....?
........issue a stern statement of dismay?
Because no part of the story makes any sense whatsoever...except to maybe some person with a scrap of Chinese stationary, a very neat penmanship in good American English. Same person has sad little grasp of narrative though, drama is best with the finest of cuts not a sledge hammer. Same person also has little grasp of world politics.
Why would I doubt it.
sigh