May Day is celebrated in different ways around the globe. In the US and Western European countries, workers with low-skill jobs protest for better conditions and more rights. In third-world countries, a different story unfolds.
In Pakistan, this historic day commemorates the social and economic success of the West in relation to the labor movement, and recognizes bonded laborers around the world who face a similar predicament to those 150 years ago.
Not just kids but entire families work to keep themselves not well-off, but alive. The husband, wife, and child work 12-14 hours a day making brick after brick. As a poor family said: "We make 1000 bricks per day; My wife and son who is 6 years old, we spend 12 to 14 hours per day and the wage we get is Rs. 450 ( $3.5 ).
These people have no right to education, health, recreation, or security. Gang rapes and food shortages are extremely common, and the cycle of poverty is propagated generation after generation.
So as we begin the month of May, think not just about the workers in North America and Europe demanding extra rights, but those in Africa and Asia, who merely want basic rights that should be so universal. May Day is the time to recognize them as well.
Not just kids but entire families work to keep themselves not well-off, but alive. The husband, wife, and child work 12-14 hours a day making brick after brick. As a poor family said: "We make 1000 bricks per day; My wife and son who is 6 years old, we spend 12 to 14 hours per day and the wage we get is Rs. 450 ( $3.5 ).
These people have no right to education, health, recreation, or security. Gang rapes and food shortages are extremely common, and the cycle of poverty is propagated generation after generation.
So as we begin the month of May, think not just about the workers in North America and Europe demanding extra rights, but those in Africa and Asia, who merely want basic rights that should be so universal. May Day is the time to recognize them as well.
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