Americans spend nearly $7 billion on Halloween. Mostly on candy, and mostly on chocolate.
美国人大约花费70亿美元在万圣节上。大部分在糖果并且其中的更大部分是在巧克力上。
But even milk chocolate has a dark side. Most chocolate today comes from West Africa, where small landholders grow more than 3 million metric tons of the fruit of the cacao tree. To turn that fruit into chocolate requires labor—and much of that labor is performed by children.
但是其实就算是雪白的牛奶巧克力中，也有它黑暗的一面。现今，大多数的巧克力是来自西非，在那片狭小的土地上孕育了超过300万公吨的可可树果实。要把果实转变为巧克力，这就需要用到劳工——而绝大部分的劳工正是儿童。
More than 100,000 children in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana help produce more than half of the world's cocoa, according to the U.S. State Department. Worse, at least 10,000 of these kids are likely enslaved.
由美国国务院统计得出，超过100000个在科特迪瓦和加纳的儿童帮助生产超过世界一半需求的可可。更糟的是，至少有10000的儿童是被奴役的。
The cocoa industry, including giants such as Hershey's or Cadbury, pledged in 2001 to end suchchild labor in the cacao groves. But the deadline for voluntary compliance has been continually pushed back and the current goal is to ensure that some 50 percent of farms are child-labor free. Fair Trade certified chocolate can help, as well as ensure that African farmers profit from the cocoa trade. Otherwise, handing kids treats derived from African children's slave labor is a nasty trick. Nobody wants to be a slave for Halloween.
包括好时和吉百利在内的可可行业巨头，承诺在2001停止诸如此类的可可园中的童工行为。但是到最后期限结束之时，此项承诺最终被不断推迟，而最近的目标是确保能有一半的农场实现无童工行为。就如同确保非洲农民可以从可可贸易中获利一样，公平贸易认证的巧克力也可以同样起到帮助作用。否则，这将会致使儿童们对非洲儿童的奴役行为是为一种肮脏的游戏。没有人想在万圣节成为奴隶。
——David Biello