Child Labour - Serious Reflections in Ditty Form : Sree Gururaja and Fouad Kronfol

Sree Gururaja circulated this cartoon recently of one continuing need for child labour - to help us elders figure out how to use our computers and other modern technologies.  It inspired a ditty response by Fouad and a response to the response by Sree.  Both signal dismay and disappointment that the fact of real child labour continues in most of the world, despite all the resolutions and verbage expended on its ending.  

Pertinent one on child labor,
I don’t want to be a bore
This ditty is definitely more
Than a trifling daily chore,
Nor cut the issue to the core
But just look out the door
Or simply go to the fore
And it hits you galore
Child maltreatment in all its gore.
On the UN assembly floor
Delegates speechify and more
Human Rights Declaration they tore
Noble words flow to the fore
Resembling our fore fathers lore
No actions , no deeds nor
Empathy if you decide to pore.
They will debate it with a roar
Their voices will rise and soar
But child labor continues as a human sore.
Is it my anger or your
Disgust on our faces we wore?
Fouad

Fouad,
Child labour eludes most nations
adding to the activists' frustrations
tough for all to do to more
when governments say no SDGs for the poor
then UN resolutions go out of the door.

ILO’s 138 and 182 forgotten
on its watch violations galore
working children here to stay
waiting for rescue they pray
the pandemic now an excuse
for schooling and care denied
to those Charles Dickens long identified.

the garment industry, orchards and precious mines
the sugarcane and cotton plantations alike
Not to forget those living on the streets and hidden
their employers cold and unfeeling to the grind
exploit and undermine the lifelong dangers
to these young bodies and minds.

We can say we tried our best and hope
the next generation will do much better
unfetter the chains of working children
support and protect their families to do more
to nurture their children with promise
Forging a just and equal humankind.
Sree

The Arab Philosopher Al-Manfalouti said:

A ditty a day,
Will make yours happy and gay,
Even though it is rainy and grey,
The world in its array
Of mud, steel and clay
Including huts made of hay,
And nasty people with their nay,
Cannot match the song of a blue jay
As it chirps on its way
To its nest high away
But not far from the bay.
Did you hear the donkey bray?
His message is HEY
This is yet another glorious DAY.

Fouad

Fouad, from an Equally fictional( as Al- Manfalouti ) , Indian yogi said

Do not meditate with a frown
While you sit in the sun and get brown
Think of children , their smiles and laughter
Forget their mothers’ sorrows and grief
For Gautam Buddha you are not!!
Sree