Semmelweis Reflex
Active member
What makes the world go round? Is it love or conspiracy?
In Punjab and Sindh about 80% of the brick kiln workers are Christians working to pay off family debts which have been, in reality, fully paid. They are illiterate and so are powerless to do anything about it. Many of these workers are children. Iqbal Masih had been a child laborer who went to work when he was four years old, to help his family pay off their debt of 600 rupees (less than $12:00 US at that time) they owed to local carpet weavers. When he was 10 he discovered that slavery had been declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and so he escaped. When he went to the police to report his former "employer," they returned the boy to his masters. They wanted the finder's fee for returning escaped bonded workers. He escaped again. Children are tightly chained to the looms they work. Literally.
He escaped again, this time joining the Bonded Labour Liberation Front school for former child slaves. He completed the four year education in two years and went on to help over 3,000 other Pakistani children escape their own slavery. He wanted to become a lawyer but he was fatally shot by the carpet mafia. He was 12 years old.
Conspiracy: a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful; the action of plotting or conspiring.
In Punjab and Sindh about 80% of the brick kiln workers are Christians working to pay off family debts which have been, in reality, fully paid. They are illiterate and so are powerless to do anything about it. Many of these workers are children. Iqbal Masih had been a child laborer who went to work when he was four years old, to help his family pay off their debt of 600 rupees (less than $12:00 US at that time) they owed to local carpet weavers. When he was 10 he discovered that slavery had been declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and so he escaped. When he went to the police to report his former "employer," they returned the boy to his masters. They wanted the finder's fee for returning escaped bonded workers. He escaped again. Children are tightly chained to the looms they work. Literally.
He escaped again, this time joining the Bonded Labour Liberation Front school for former child slaves. He completed the four year education in two years and went on to help over 3,000 other Pakistani children escape their own slavery. He wanted to become a lawyer but he was fatally shot by the carpet mafia. He was 12 years old.
Conspiracy: a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful; the action of plotting or conspiring.