Muff Diver,

I must REALLY get under your skin, given all the personal attacks.

Nice.
_____

mhaze,

Are you suggesting cobalt extraction issues are unique to EVs? Or are we talking about global resource extraction more broadly? Because phones, laptops and petroleum refining all use Congolese cobalt too.

#…I wouldn't try to convince you of anything. Your concern for children is really touching…#
Ttbn

True, i must admit I’m slow to believe in anything I can’t see touch @nd feel.

As for children, I’ve worked full time since I was thirteen; I didn’t see that as a burden at the time.
75% of kids left school at fifteen in my day, and except for three percent that wouldn’t work in an iron lung, worked full time: There was no welfare alternative.
I know a kid in my circle has worked on a boat since the same age, a great deck hand and was a wasted space in a school 3nvironment. Kids like to work, (and play), it’s a good mix.

In a time and place, the expectation is, and was, kids would chip in and work; especially on farms. It’s only a problem if you make it one.

Dearest Johnny Chatbot,

Not offended at all, I’m only highly amused: Keep up the good work.

The exploitation of the third world, its people and its resources by greedy Capitalism must be resisted. Africa is a resource rich continent ripe for the picking, as the growing demand for its wealth is exploited by America, China, Europe and others.

DD

Oh you poor thing! I'm sure your experience was just like African kids working in mines. You were lucky to escape a horrible death.

#… Oh you poor thing!…# Ttbn.NO,

No…thats just the way it was baby…and still is. Kids work before and after school these days, but in the past, work for children was a permanent fixture…Thats the point.

I’m sure African kids don't see their working in mines for one example, as being a burden, (unless they’re enslaved).

Now the exploitation of children in the workforce, brings the argument for and against child labour into another context.

What about child soldiers, now there is a good subject. Africans are well known for exploiting children for cannon fodder; as are the Palestinians in Gaza. It’s the big convenient reason Israel is victimised over killing children; the accusers overlook that simple little fact in war, who holds a gun is a target, child or not. It’s poor Israelis not only poor children, both become victims, the killer and the killed, but in spite of the truth, ( let it not stand in the way of a good story).

Fighting terrorism is impossible without killing children; the modus operandi of the terrorist organisation is child exploitation, which sits outside of international convention and let’s them off the hook.
When Palestinians sit around in the rubble with nothing better to do than kill Jews and breed more fodder for Hamas, things look very bleak for children in some areas of the world more than others.