A Teddy Bear for V-Day

http://valentines-special-gifts.blogspot.com/2011/02/pretty-teddy-bears-pics.html

        One of the most common gifts to give on the Valentine’s Day is a teddy bear. They are cheap, cuddly, everyone from young to old likes them and they get the message of affection across. One thing that makes them a nice gift for Valentine’s Day is that you can personalize your teddy bear to express how you feel about the person who is receiving. The furry creatures are hand produced in some third world country, usually by stuffing cotton, rayon fiberfill or a natural cotton and rayon blend. Their jackets might be made from cotton, nylon, mirco-suede, leather, silk, rabbit pelt or other material. The eyes ant noses are made from plastic or rubber. The most common component of a teddy bear is the cotton. We do not think of how it was produced or where it made. Some of the manufactures of teddy bears support forced, cheap labor from other developing countries by initial importing the cotton and then by importing the final product. In the end stores that sell these teddy bears make some profit and in result provide the demand for sweatshop workers. 

• Cotton the Source of Trouble

        Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a ball or protective capsule around the seed of the cotton plant. The fiber is almost pure cellulose and grows as shrubs that are native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world.  After cultivation, the fiber is spun into yarn or thread and used to make soft textile.  

http://www.leonxie.com/

The use of cotton dates back to 5000BC and made an even more prominent worldwide textile with the invention of the cotton gin during the Industrial Revolution. The cotton gin lowered the cost of production that led to its widespread use to the New World and the Old World; it is most widely used as a natural fiber in clothing today. Since the beginning cotton has been harvested by hand and the improving technology and increasing control of world markets allowed British trader to develop a commercial chain in which raw cotton fibers were purchased from colonial plantation, processed into cotton cloth in the mills and then exported on British ships to captive colonial market in West Africa, India and China. By the mid-19^th century cotton had become the backbone southern American economy. Around this time the competition for cotton increased, as a result the cultivation and harvesting of cotton became the leading occupation of slaves (1). Most cotton in the US, Europe and Australia is harvested mechanically by cotton picker machines, but in the developing countries in is still picked by hand. One of these countries that still rely on the hand picking of cotton is Uzbekistan, the world’s third largest producer and exporter of cotton.

• Uzbekistan: prime real-estate for forced labor 

        Located in Central Asia, was part of Soviet Union until 1991 and now belong to the one of the six independent Turkic states.  Their economy relies on commodity production, including cotton, gold, uranium, potassium and natural gases.  Uzbekistan’s domestic policies on human rights and individual freedoms are often criticized by international organizations (2). 

• Bears Supports Forced Labor

        Forced child labor, human rights violations, excessive pesticide use, the draining of an ocean and severe poverty are all part of the cotton production in Uzbekistan. Instead of using machines to harvest cotton, Uzbekistan’s government uses children. The state officially shuts down schools during the harvest season of the cotton and sends the students with their teachers to the fields. The children are forced into weeks of harsh labor for little or no financial compensation.  Headmasters are issued cotton quotas to make sure students pick the required daily amount. Children who fail to pick their daily target are punished with detentions and told that their grades are going to suffer. The students who refuse to take part can face academic expulsion (3). The teachers who refuse might lose their jobs. One teacher was fire from her teaching job for refusing to send a sick schoolchild to the cotton fields (4, 5).  

http://enews.fergananews.com/article.php?id=2581

http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbek_clerics_doctors
_ordered_to_pick_cotton/24347899.html

• Don't Believe Watch the Video below

                       White Gold - The True Cost Of Cotton

                                                                       

The harvest of cotton has been detrimental to the environment, where the rivers that fed Aral Sea are used to irrigate the cotton fields. As a result the Aral Sea had dramatically decreased. This exploitation of nation and its environment has been possible with extreme control from President Karimov of Ukzbekistan. This President has eliminated any form of democratic representation; prohibiting free media, subverted basic civil liberties and institutionalized the use of torture and intimidation within the police. Despite all of this well known abuse, the western countries of Europe and the US continue to be a major part of Uzbekistan’s cotton export. The only ones who benefit from this are the ones who own the privatized cotton companies. 

• What happens to cotton?

Some of the leading importers of this cotton are China, Korea, Singapore and Indonesia. These countries rely on cotton to produce clothing, toys such as teddy bears and export for financial benefit. Some of these developing countries to meet their quotas use sweatshop labor. Factories in China are being closed down, due in part by loosing factories as a result of rising prices for energy, materials and labor. The expenses, plus higher taxes and stricter enforcement of labor and environmental standards, are causing manufacturers to leave for lower cost markets such as Indonesia (6).

In Indonesia children that are young as 13 are forced to work in sweatshops for little as $ 0.10 per day. These Indonesian based sweatshops supply 80% of the stuffed animals that are manufacture for the American toy shops. One bear is estimated to have cost of $0.70 to produce, pack and ship to United States where they sell for $8.00. During the seasonal holidays including Valentine’s Day and birthdays, the demand for teddy bears increases meaning that teenager in the developing countries such as Indonesia are forced to work 10-hour shifts, six days a week (7).

• What can we do?

We can make an effort to ask our retailer from where they import their product. In this way we will: stop supporting forced labor, child labor, slave labor, sweatshops and human exploitation.

Take me back to the table.

References and sites for more information:
     1. The Biology of Gossypium Hirsutum L. and Gossypium barbadese L. (cotton). ogtr.gov.au
     
     2. Human rights in Uzbekistan: Amnisty International report, 2008.
     3.  http://www.ejfoundation.org/page142.html (for more info on Uzbek cotton)
     4. http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1079375.html (for more info on Uzbek cotton picking)
     5.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8340630.stm (for more info on Uzbek cotton picking)
     6. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/2008/02/23/144161/Rising-material.htm (for more info on shift in cheap labor in the developing countries)
     7.  http://www.kathyskreations.com/stuffed%20animals%20business/stuffed%20animals%20usa.html