Egypt: Child labor a growing problem as food prices rise

Jake Sokoloff

1. "Egypt: Child labor a growing problem as food prices rise"
The Jerusalem Post
4/3/08
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207209967829&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

2. Egypt continues to struggle with rising prices of food and inflation, which directly affects the working class families and those whose responsibility it is to supply food for them. As this increase takes place, new attention has been thrown to child labor laws and working conditions. Egypt's Parliament is moving towards meet the terms of international standards to protect these working children. With this rise in prices movement towards these changes will slow because of the need for workers as well as for supporting poor families. Of about seventy million people living in Egypt right now, more than twenty percent fall on or below the poverty line. The government does support these people with minimal help, but as prices of food have jumped things have slowed down.
Most of these child workers work for brick factories where they load bricks into donkey carts where they are sent to dry. They make $4.50 a day, less than minimum wage here in the United States. Some children who have been interviewed say that there have been times where they have been beaten because they were moving too slow. Many foreign experts say that working conditions across Egypt vary. This is a major issue that the government really needs to take action on. Between the ages of six and seventeen, 1.5 million children are living on the street in Egypt right now. A young working boy who was interviewed said, "Here they pay me, and I can help my family." Experts find that supporting a family is the biggest reason why children leave school at such a young age and stick it out in these horrible conditions.

3. Reactions
A. This article definitely relates to the AP theme systems of social structure and gender structure. This article mainly focuses in on the lower classes. It really gets inside the life of a poverty-stricken class that is continuously growing and action needs to be taken immediately. This article shows current day social structure in Egypt, something that almost every society has.
B. This is a very controversial issue that dates back to the days of river valley civilizations and the beginning of the fast growing empire of Egypt. Since that time Egypt has had somewhat of a strict social pyramid with the Pharaoh on top and the working class and peasants on the bottom. This bottom class was always looked down upon and never really appreciated during that time. Today this low class is creating a serious problem for Egypt.
C. This article was written by the Associated Press. The Associated Press is an organization that provides newspapers and magazines all over the world with the latest news updates. There is no specific indication of the gender or nationality of the author but this person is probably and outsider. In this specific case I don't really think that not knowing this authors nationality is a major problem because this issue is world-wide.
D. There is possibility for some bias in this author's point of view. First, they are probably an outsider not living in Egypt, which means that they are not witnessing this first hand but merely gathering facts and interviews to report. There is some possibility that this person is in favor of the child workers because he only discusses the terrible working conditions and the harsh labor children perform. He also might be over-exaggerating the issue to get the point across or even to attract readers.
E. To understand this issue better I would like to hear from a different side. He does not report the side of the government or the people who run these factories and employ these children. I would like to see if these terrible conditions he reports are really the truth. Hearing from a government official would help me understand what the government is really doing to help these poor families and what they actually plan to do in the future.
F. I chose this article because I am actually a child worker. I got my child working permit when I was twelve and have been working ever since. I work in the film and television industry as well as on the stage. I find this article really interesting because it relates to me. Obviously conditions here are much different than in Egypt but I still like to keep track of what is required of my employers. There are also many labor unions in the industries I work in that help support child workers and continue to ensure that they are being treated correctly and up to standards. I also noticed that a few other kids picked this article for their blog assignment this week. I find this interesting because I find that we are at the age now where we are starting to work and can really relate to the problems that these child workers are having in Egypt right now.