~VALENTINES~

[Lady Cop]

a valentine legend

[Cracker]

I can't wait to get my chocolates. (I didn't know Whitman's was part of Russell Stover.)


or


I like them better than more expensive chocolates.



Those innocuous and delicious-looking chocolates given to loved ones all over the world on Valentine's Day are, more often than not, the result of incredible human suffering.
They are lethal luxuries. Those innocuous and delicious-looking chocolates given to loved ones all over the world on Valentine's Day are, more often than not, the result of incredible human suffering. Their main ingredient, cocoa, is often produced by child slaves in Africa.

"It is absolutely certain that the box of chocolates you got for Valentine's was produced by slave labour if it does not have a fair trade label," Steve Chalke of Stop the Traffik, an anti-trafficking NGO, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on the sidelines of a United Nations forum on human trafficking in Vienna.

When people think of human trafficking, they primarily think about the sex trade. But they forget that trafficking is a factor permeating all trades - be it sex, agriculture, domestic services, manufacture of fabrics - or chocolate.

"Chocolate is a prime example - it is cheap, and it is something many people buy - it makes the otherwise overwhelming statistics more personal," Chalke said.

According to UN estimates, at least 2.5 million people are exploited by forced labour at any point in time, a majority of them children.

In Ivory Coast, which produces 43 percent of the world's cocoa, about 12,000 boys from countries like Mali or Togo work as slaves on cocoa farms, the UN said. Activists put the number as high as 200,000.

"Even if it were ten, it would be ten too many," Chalke said of the modern-day slaves who are often as young as nine years of age.

The parents of those children are duped by the traffickers into believing their boys would receive an honest job, regular pay and an education, none of which ever happens.

Child slaves on the farm face appalling working conditions with 12 to 14 hours of severe manual labour, cutting down cocoa pods using big knives or machetes, thereby risking severe injuries which can often maim them permanently, Global Exchange, a fair trade organisation said. Some are also killed and many are beaten or abused.

"With every bar of chocolate you eat there is blood on your teeth," Chalke warned.

[Maggot]

Go lindt.............



STRATHAM, N.H.—Chocolate maker Lindt has finished a big expansion of its New Hampshire factory with the addition of a cocoa-processing plant that's transforming beans into chocolate under one roof.

It's a milestone for the U.S. headquarters of the company, which is based in Switzerland. The U.S. factory started small in Stratham in 1989 and now employs about 350 people. It's holding an open house Wednesday.


Before the 350,000-square-foot processing plant was added, the factory would produce the cocoa in Switzerland, then ship it to New Hampshire to mix with other ingredients to produce its truffles. Now, it transports beans from Africa and South America right to Stratham, cutting up to 10,000 travel miles.


Yum-yum

[Duchess]

Mmmmm truffles. Nom Nom Nom

[Cracker]

These are the bomb:

Effen love them.

[Maggot]

Women love good chocolate. In fact the exit doors are 2ft wider than the entrance doors.

[Lady Cop]

[sally]

I don't care for chocolate candy, it gives me a headache. Chocolate pudding is pretty awesome though.

[IMaDick]

A wal- Mart Valentine, I took this photo today at wally's

[Cracker]

WTF?

[IMaDick]

The whole aisle was candy hearts,chocolates and all the normal Valentines stuff, then when I got to the end here is this rack of trojans, I guess it's a new marketing strategy.

[Lady Cop]

oh MagggotttyboooB! didja get my valentine card yet? huh?

now you can send me some maple sugar candy and arrange for a samples tour through the Lindt factory! yeah!



moosie maple sugar

[Maggot]

Yes I did! How did you get that picture of me? You never said you had a camera!!

[Lady Cop]

oh shit this is mean!
i sent it to my son the pitcher.

[Maggot]

You're like the evil valentines fairy.

[Lady Cop]

the ladies of Mock all get some of this fragrance~~

[username]

My almost 13 y/o son told me yesterday that he didn't understand why people get all worked up over Valentine's Day. He said (as best I remember), "I mean, if you really like someone, shouldn't you be nice to them 365 days a year"?




Parents of young girls--I'm taking offers for an arranged marriage.

[Maggot]

Ya know bitch, I do that all year, do ya think it helps?

[IMaDick]

My almost 13 y/o son told me yesterday that he didn't understand why people get all worked up over Valentine's Day. He said (as best I remember), "I mean, if you really like someone, shouldn't you be nice to them 365 days a year"?




Parents of young girls--I'm taking offers for an arranged marriage.

Stop beating that poor kid.

[Lady Cop]

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE FROM AL