politicodiary

Cadbury chocolates continue to be pulled into controversy over use of child labor in their chocolate growing facilities in Africa. A recent documentary titled ‘Cadbury Exposed’ surfaced on Channel 4 in the UK and shows footage where children can be seen working with machetes in fields in Ghana. They are said to be as young as ten years old are were filmed harvesting cocoa pods for Mondelēz International, owner of Cadbury, for the U.S. equivalent of less than $3 a day.  Tweets are doing round accusing Mondelēz of continuing to indulge in child labor. Children were filmed weeding cocoa plantations, using sharp knives to open cocoa pods, and swinging sticks with blades to harvest the pods from trees. None of the children seem to have any protective equipment and one girl reported that she had once sliced her foot open while using a long machete. These children are too small to be doing this kind of dangerous work. Apart from boys, girls are also being empl...

Strangely, influencers in social media are spreading fake news about the Covid-19 spread and this is influencing people’s minds against the vaccination. Fake news about Covid-19 vaccines has played a major role in preventing people from trusting the vaccine process can save their lives. Since the start of the pandemic, rumors and conspiracy theories have been rife, unsettling many people and making vaccination campaigns more difficult. Religious leaders are saying that vaccines can affect fertility, breastfeeding abilities or lead to death too. The WHO has found that the majority of fake news is spreading in North America, Australia, and Russia and elsewhere in Europe. From there, they also reach African social media channels. The global health body is fighting this kind of misinformation on the continent of 1.3 billion people. Since December 2020, the WHO has been working with 20 partners in Africa. They formed the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance, whose aim is to debunk dange...

  A recent WHO warning states that there is an alarming rise in toxicity levels due to irresponsible e-waste disposal. It is already affecting health of millions of children. Recently, a case was reported of toxic food poisoning that was a result of e-waste contamination having got transferred to food items in Ghana.  In a ground breaking news report, Children and Digital Dumpsites , the WHO has explicitly outlined the irresponsible disposal of electronic waste.  “With mounting volumes of production and disposal, the world faces what one recent international forum described as a mounting “tsunami of e-waste”, putting lives and health at risk.” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “In the same way the world has rallied to protect the seas and their ecosystems from plastic and microplastic pollution, we need to rally to protect our most valuable resource –the health of our children – from the growing threat of e-waste.” As many as 12.9 million women ar...