Bread and Circuses

In exchange for $3.19 in daily wages, FirestoneNatural Rubber Company, a Bridgestone subsidiary, expects a typical Liberian worker to tap 650 trees a day, carrying seventy-pound buckets of latex for miles. A single laborer would have to work twenty-one hours per day to meet this quota, a near-impossible task. Which is why Firestone gives workers an extra incentive: tap 650 trees per day or see their daily wages slashed in half.

In a country whose economy has been ravaged by 14 years of civil war, Firestone's employees don't have a choice but to comply. With Liberia's 85 percent unemployment rate, there will always be someone desperate enough to take their place.

The 650-tree daily quota policy has led many of Firestone's more than 4,000 employees to enlist their children and wives as workers to ensure that they meet their target. But these extra workers aren't paid any extra. And the children whose families depend on their labor for survival never have the opportunity to go to school.

Of what importance could this really be to me you ask? Probably not a lot. I can't even really tell you why I personally think its worth writing about, but I'm really just growing weary of all the complete and utter bull-shit that bounces off my retinas. But as I was saying,

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, the world's largest seller of tires, is spending more than $10 million as "official tire sponsor" of the Super Bowl halftime show in Phoenix, to be broadcast on Fox this evening -- and will likely spend that much and more to sponsor the event in 2009. But the entertainment and advertising images beamed into American (and that nobody up top - Candada)'s living rooms during the most-watched sporting event of the year stand in sharp contrast to the harsh working conditions, child labor and exposure to toxic chemicals at the company's rubber plantations in Liberia.

While Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers perform at halftime and fitness enthusiast Richard Simmons cavorts in the company's commercials aired during the game, Americans should be aware that there's more going on here than just selling tires. The company is using the Super Bowl as a public relations platform to cleanse its image as it faces a class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Indiana, filed by the International Labor Rights Forum, a Washington-based advocacy organization. The ILRF and several plaintiffs accuse the company of committing human rights abuses for its use of child labor in Liberia.

I'm not one of those free-trade coffee whacks that can't find something better to live for but I like I said I guess I'm just getting tired of being completely out of touch with what really happens behind the magic curtain. The guys went to Hard Rock Cafe to purchase appy's and exchange the usual half-hearted rhetoric of whatever the hell is captivating the moment. I'm too comfy in my ketchup stained sweat pants to divulge in sitting up straight in a crammed booth drinking a gross beer. I'm comfy. I'm gonna go read some more. I miss my friends. These canceled shows couldn't have come at a better time. I feel so rested and rejuvenated. Glad we're still doing these shows in Feb. They're gonna kill.

Drink lots of water and read.