At first I thought that I was wrong and I was hallucinating because of the sun despite I was not.Americana , the owner of Tekka restaurant chain should know better the Egyptian laws of labour.
But I was surprised to know that it is not only in Egypt but it is in other Arab countries as well !! This time it is an American fast food chain “Hardees” in Amman,Jordan !! It is also another franchise Americana owns its right in the Arab world.I think Queen Rania just like Suzanne Mubarak made it clear about the child labour !!
Now I have just known that some people saw children working in “Hardees” downtown in Cairo “@ Al Tahrir Square”
So it is not local management policy ,it is more than a regional one !!?? or franchise policy or what exactly ??
Does “Hardees” know about this in the United States ?? The franchiser does not leave its franchise like this ,so it would harm its image abroad overseas ?? I do not think that the human rights organizations will like this abroad.
It is not about poverty , yes some people send their children to earn money in legal or even in less illegal way like in the case of Americana so they do not have to suffer.
I think there are laws against Child labour in Egypt or Jordan otherwise why this boy lied about his age !!??
Still …
I do not know how to say…
We are so hypocrite , we are calling for an end to the Child labour but we let Children to serve us in foreign fast food restaurants.
This should stop . Already I think there are many young men who need these kids jobs even if they were part time jobs and these kids should learn and enjoy their life before starting to battle the life to earn their living.
I can't say that this is not shocking to me. But do you think it is better for those kids to work in Hardee's or as garbage collectors on those donkey carriages? as beggars? tissue sellers? etc, etc..
ReplyDeletehardee's is a restaurant chain that primarily operates in the american southeast, and they are owned by parent company cke enterprises.
ReplyDeleteamericana is a franchisee of hardee's.
a quick look at the cke code of conduct shows nothing in regards to child labor...but it would not be surprising that a us-based company might not think of the need for such a policy, even if they are dointg business overseas.
my suspicion is that if you contacted them about it they would be surprised. beyond that, i'm unable to accurately gess how they'd respond.
@darshongy, both of them are wrong but they do exist because of the economic condition and we have to fight them
ReplyDelete"We are so hypocrite , we are calling for an end to the Child labor but we let Children to serve us in foreign fast food restaurants"
@fake consultant, for sure they do not know , in fact I am thinking of contacting them at least they can send a warning to Americana
Americana is not the case , there are lots of lower level resturants,workshops ,markets and other places where the children work in conditions much more worse than that at Hardees.It can be worse as there are other children who are being used by others in begging.
ReplyDeleteI hope with you that those kids should enjoy their age, go to school to learn.
But is it really that simple?
A kid who might be an orphan and who has to get money for himself and maybe for his family too..
A kid who might be forced to work by his parents themselves ..
Tell me how - for God sake - will the government keep an eye on every kid to protect him from working while it is the main cause of the unemployment and poverty that led to this situation.
And BTW yes we are hypocrite , and this is not the only clue for our hypocricy.
the imperfect solution that we have applied in the us is to decalre such children "in the custody of the state".
ReplyDeleteonce that occurs, they are either provided shelter in a state institution (the 50 states each maintain "child welfare" systems for this purpose, which are taxpayer-funded) or they are placed into the care of "foster families" for various lengths of time (the foster families are compensated by the same system for this service).
there are also private orphanges, mostly run as religious "missions" by various groups.
this is far from a perfect system, however; and there are many examples of problems ranging from abuse of the involved children to misspent money to underfunding to financial fraud to the heartbreak of children unwanted who are raised to adulthood in an orphange.
i don't know how to introduce that sort of system into an environment where the child is possibly the only breadwinner in a family...but if we were specifically talking about jordan, a willing king might seek to convince his constituency that creating state-administered social welfare and expanded education systems--that not only put that child in school but also helps to feed the rest of the family--is the best way to create an educated middle class.
how could such a thing be funded?
is it possible that the king could command (or othwerwise convince) his subjects to discharge their islamic charitable obligations by helping to fund such an initiative?
a deeper question: would such an effort undermine "local" power people such as imams who currently "administer" the charity efforts of their mosques who would not be willing to give up their power and local influence?
@M in the bottle, I know it is not easy but yes it is the responsibility of the government if the government announces that it is against Child labor and the President declared in his presidential program that he would work to provide a good living to all citizens of Egypt, the government caused this situation for sure but it should solved it too along with the NGOs
ReplyDelete@fake consultant,among the real Ismaic Charitable obligations the help of these children and their families
all those things you said we have it in a way or another but there are only on papers , there is no use if there is not enough funding or care ,if there is corruption in the state