Last Updated on June 10, 2023 8:57 AM by herald
Today’s March for the Children in Barbados comes at a time when there is increasing evidence that there is an international and deeply entrenched business cabal whose commodity is children. So far want of a better expression we shall call it the “child commodity market”.
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Some readers will understandably be revulsed by the use of such a term. So is this writer! But there comes a time when you must call a spade a spade so that we can stop seeing through a glass darkly. The greatest weapon in the universe is truth, therefore, we ask those who fit the category of the revulsed to bear with us while we expose this most ghastly criminal and moral debauchery.
Basic Concepts The term commodity means product or service. It is both a marketing and economic term. Although we emphasize the term “commodity” in our title, the real issue is how the abuse of children has become commodified. |
The associated term “commodification” means “the action or process of treating something as a mere commodity”. That by itself is not very helpful. But everyday we interact with thousands of commodities in the commercial marketplace; whether it is in the supermarket, the hardware or the fast food joint.
What then are the features of a commodity and by extension, commodification? There are in fact two key characteristics.
First of all, beyond being a product or service, a commodity is something that is demanded by a relatively large section of a society. Some sources estimate the market involves millions of children and is worth billions of dollars per year outstripping the projections of several other bona fide industries.
The truth of the matter is that we are still seeing the tip of the child commodity iceberg. But with increasing frequency, its scope and depth are being uncovered.
Second, like any other commodity, the commodification of children requires a system of logistics to make it efficient. In a broad sense, logistics is that marketing / economic activity that deals with the sourcing, cataloguing, warehousing (“storage” / “inventorying”), transportation and delivery of a product.
For a long time, we have heard of some aspects of this aspect of commodification of children under the title “child trafficking”. However, that term grossly understates the enormity of the matter; so much so, that if the true logistics were suddenly laid bare, the information would be labeled as conspiracy theory or there would be unprecedented public rage.
An Investment
In point of fact, the success of the child commodity market is due to entrepreneurs and investors who see an avenue for profit and a good ROI (“Return on Investment). Of course, you will never see this on any stock exchange; what we can also call the “child commodity industry” is shrouded in the greatest of secrecy and for good reason: all the players in it know it is both illegal and immoral!
I should like to end conclude this first instalment with a thought experiment that is rooted in our local culture as in other countries. The experiment begins with a story.
Recently I attended a funeral of a fairly well-known male individual. Surprisingly, the eulogy was more or less what one might expect. But as always, some of the more salacious details of the dearly departed emerged graveside. It turns out that the individual had an “outside child”. The story – not uncommon in Barbados – is that child’s mother had deliberately gotten pregnant for the departed and was receiving four figure “support for the child”.
As we said, this sort of thing is not uncommon in Barbados. However, in the light of all that is happening with regard to children should we not ask whether this activity – deliberately becoming pregnant for a man- is not only a form of child abuse but of the order of commodification of children? What do you think?
In our next instalment we will continue with the concept of the child commodity market and take a look at how the market is segmented by examining the increasingly diverse “use” of children as a commodity. In the meantime we invite you to support today’s the march and rally as well as our petition to the Sovereign Court of Heaven which can be found here.
Dr. Aldon D. Tull is a retired marketing educator
