Soccer balls and teenagers: doing right - US schoolchildren fight child labor abuses abroad - Column

National Catholic Reporter, March 21, 1997 by Leslie Wirpsa

The thousands of soccer-playing children and their parents, meanwhile, who wrung the February pledge from soccer ball manufacturers, manipulated other key tools of the market -- corporate image and consumer opinion. John Riddle, president of the U.S. Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, confirmed the effectiveness of these tactics in an interview with The New York Times: "What [the manufacturers] are reacting to is a potential degradation of the value of their brand. They think their brands are important, that their corporate good name is important, and they don't want to see that impaired."

Granted, the task seems daunting considering that U.S.-based corporations alone spend $150 billion annually on advertising. It appears even more formidable when we learn from Tony Clarke, former chair of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Canadian Council of Churches, that global transnational corporations "spend well over half as much money on advertising as the nation states of the world combined spend on public education."

None of these odds, however, frightened the Broad Meadows Middle School children or the soccer-playing youth who grabbed the attention of ball manufacturers. What's more, the Broad Meadows youngsters were not afraid to open their minds and their hearts to Masih and the facts of his life. They were not afraid to believe they could make connections, that they could have an impact. They were not afraid to trust the ripple.

Seventh grader Jen Grogan, writing on the class Web site, challenged others to do the same: "When I was younger and eating steak with vegetables, Iqbal was working 14 hours a day. When I was playing, Iqbal was still working. When I was watching TV, Iqbal was working harder and harder.

"He is free now, but there are still million children in bonded labor right now in Pakistan. So when you get the chance, stop, maybe before bed, or in the hall, while watching TV or when you are sitting on the bench waiting your turn to go into the game, think some. Turn off the TV or radio and play, hope and even later write a letter for the children of Pakistan.

"I am more thankful, appreciative and grateful. He made me think of easy and hard things in a different way."