Sometimes it's hard to be on the pedestal as a symbol of international sportsmanship and goodwill. The Olympic Games have often been rocked by scandal and marked by tragedy, but in the last twenty years we've seen tons of doping issues to bombs to the really bad charges that the site selection was paid for in bribes. Now there's reports that Olympic merchandise for the 2008 Games in Beijing is being produced under appalling conditions using child labor. Playfair 08 investigated factories licensed to make bags, stationary, and other stuff for the games and found "evidence that factory owners falsified employment records, forced staff to lie about their wages and conditions, and employed children as young as 12 years old." There's also reports workers were paid half the legal minimum wage in China, and forced to work 15 hours a day, seven days a week. "Half the minimum wage in China" is really not good.
With information like this, it gets harder and harder to muster up enthusiasm for 2008, which is too bad, because I love the Olympics. Particularly women's volleyball, if you must know. Of course, lots of the stuff we buy from stores here every day have been produced under slave-like conditions, but if the Olympics helps raise awareness about worker exploitation and child labor, then the Games are doing some good. That Olympics baseball cap with the rings sits a little uncomfortably when you know it was made by a 14-year-old locked in a factory.
