Child labor: Sad / quaint
These images of child labor evoke such different responses. The first photo was taken one night in Iraq shortly before the US invasion. Everyone knew that war was coming, but there were few ways to prepare for and no ways prevent the onslaught. The boy, dusty and seeming impoverished, shines the boots of an American, a woman no less (surely an odd occurrence) on a busy Baghdad street corner. Was she wrong to use this child’s labor? Was it a small act of generosity to employ him? Or simply a casual convenience? And was my photographing him, in its own way, exploitive?
The bottom shot on the other hand, while also of child labor, seems charming. The sisters, with their peaceful dog, cook eggs over charcoal to sell at a sunny street market. They are clean and cared for, engaged in a job that would be illegal and considered dangerous in America, but was, in the context of Laos, just kids helping with the family business. But if I have learned one thing while traveling, it is to be wary of perceptions of quaintness.
Of course we need laws limiting child labor but there can be beneficial exceptions. When I was a teenager, my father had me work a few hours each weekend in his lumber company. I learned useful skills which I still value these many years later. He also got me summer jobs with people he knew that included commercial refrigeration, a factory, and a machine shop. Again, the knowledge and skills I gained still help my work in physics and engineering. While some of these jobs may have technically violated regulations, I hardly consider them exploitive.
Good point. I had not appreciated that bias, especially back in those days.