Jerry writes:

>  It's hard to use a boycott when the practice is so wide-spread, and
>  so many Americans will buy the cheapest products even if made with
>  child labor.
>
>  Look at Wal-mart, who contracts to slave factories in Communist China
>  where workers die of exhaustion. This story doesn't name Wal-mart but
>  the factory is typical of those Wal-mart deals with:
>
>     http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8254-2002May12.html
>     Worked Till They Drop (washingtonpost.com)
>
>    "SONGGANG, China -- On the night she died, Li Chunmei must have been
>     exhausted.
>
>     Co-workers said she had been on her feet for nearly 16 hours, running
>     back and forth inside the Bainan Toy Factory, carrying toy parts from
>     machine to machine. When the quitting bell finally rang shortly after
>     midnight, her young face was covered with sweat.
>
>     This was the busy season, before Christmas, when orders peaked from
>     Japan and the United States for the factory's stuffed animals. Long
>     hours were mandatory, and at least two months had passed since Li and
>     the other workers had enjoyed even a Sunday off.
>
>     Lying on her bed that night, staring at the bunk above her, the slight
>     19-year-old complained she felt worn out, her roommates recalled. She
>     was massaging her aching legs, and coughing, and she told them she was
>     hungry. The factory food was so bad, she said, she felt as if she had
>     not eaten at all.
>
>     "I want to quit," one of her roommates, Huang Jiaqun, remembered her
>     saying. "I want to go home."
>
>     Finally, the lights went out. Her roommates had already fallen asleep
>     when Li started coughing up blood. They found her in the bathroom a
>     few hours later, curled up on the floor, moaning softly in the dark,
>     bleeding from her nose and mouth. Someone called an ambulance, but she
>     died before it arrived..."

It's also hard to live with yourself if you're an avid sports fan in
Capitalist America where student athletes die of exhaustion. Look at Wal-Mart. This
story doesn't name Wal-Mart as a sponsor of any of any of the games mentioned in
the story, but it's fairly typical of the kind of student athletics that
Wal-Mart does sponsor:

========================================

http://www.schoolhealth.com/shop/mc_archive_berger.asp
Sudden Cardiac Death in Children and Adolescents...
Can We Prevent It?

Adam Lemel was an outstanding athlete. At 17, he was a star basketball player
and one of the best high school tennis players in Wisconsin. While playing
basketball at a neighboring Milwaukee high school in January 1999, he collapsed
during a time-out.

Tragically, Adam was dying on the basketball court, and not until the
paramedics arrived, was CPR begun. By that time, it was too late. Adam died. His
autopsy revealed a rare condition known as arrhythmogenic right ventricular
dysplasia (ARVD).

One month later, Wilmot High School student Mark Barranco, 18, also
experienced sudden cardiac death (SCD) while playing basketball. His autopsy revealed
an anomalous left coronary artery.

The following November, a Milwaukee Technical High School football player
died of SCD while playing basketball with friends. And, in April 2000, two more
Milwaukee-area deaths were attributed to SCD: a Marquette University senior and
a visiting 12-year-old baseball player from Illinois. On autopsy, all three
had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

=========================================

Wirt Atmar

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