If slavery were an American state it would have the population of California and the economic output of the District of Columbia, but it would be the world’s third-largest producer of CO2.
I have no words to describe how I feel about this. All of this information is new to me and yet its such a huge problem that affects so many people so severely.
We think of Steve Jobs in his black turtleneck as the origin of our iPhones, or imagine a local funeral director carving a loved one’s name into a tombstone. Whether we are grilling shrimp for our friends or buying T-shirts for our children we generally think of these things as beginning where we first encountered them, at the shop, at the mall, in the grocery store. But just as each of us is deeper than our surface, just as each of us has a story to tell, so do the tools and toys and food and rings and phones that tie us together.
From a young age we are taught the basic decency that people have lives before and after us, but we aren't taught that objects are the same.
Back in Germany the filmmakers quizzed the businessmen that sold the tombstones; these men were appalled when they saw footage from the quarries.
This makes me wonder if it was an honest surprise or, if it was, whether or not they tried to fix it. I doubt both.
Slavery is a great way to keep your costs down, but there’s another reason why that granite is so cheap—the quarries themselves are illegal, paying no mining permits or taxes. The protected state and national forest parks rest on top of granite deposits, and a bribe here and there means local police and forest rangers turn a blind eye.
I've noticed this is a common practice in India for many government run facilities and programs. Bribing officials has become the norm and, in most of these cases, it only hurts the tourists, but this is taking it unbelievably far.
Slavery in granite quarries is a family affair enforced by a tricky scheme based on debt. When a poor family comes looking for work, the quarry bosses are ready to help with an “advance” on wages to help the family settle in. The rice and beans they eat, the scrap stones they use to build a hut on the side of the quarry, the hammers and crowbars they need to do their work, all of it is provided by the boss and added to the family’s debt. Just when the family feels they may have finally found some security, they are being locked into hereditary slavery.
People always talk about how everyone is always on their phones and social media and how that's affecting our mental states, but we never see what's really happening to get these phones in front of us.