TED Talk of Auret van Heerden
John N. Pasmore Essay TED Talk of Auret van Heerden
Working out Poverty
Auret van Heerden is a compelling speaker. He currently serves as president and CEO of the non-‐governmental organization (NGO), Fair Labor Association in Geneva, Switzerland. In a video-‐taped TED Talk (http://ow.ly/rWoZR0) he makes a compelling plea while dressed in black like a kinder more human-‐interested Steve Jobs.
He is pleading with the audience to take a closer and more compassionate view of how by consuming some of the products we all use like cellphones, or cotton or chocolate we are, in fact, taking advantage of child labor. The pictures he uses within his presentation, mostly young brown-‐skinned kids, reinforce his point and perspective tugging on emotional strings and some form of non-‐specific guilt that Westerner’s carry knowing that our way of life probably is supported by our standing on the shoulders of many less-‐fortunate people. The images are clearly at odds with how we in the developed world perceive our own guilt or complicity within this issue of child labor. We don’t see ourselves individually as exploiting these children and his presentation effectively chips away
Working out Poverty
Auret van Heerden is a compelling speaker. He currently serves as president and CEO of the non-‐governmental organization (NGO), Fair Labor Association in Geneva, Switzerland. In a video-‐taped TED Talk (http://ow.ly/rWoZR0) he makes a compelling plea while dressed in black like a kinder more human-‐interested Steve Jobs.
He is pleading with the audience to take a closer and more compassionate view of how by consuming some of the products we all use like cellphones, or cotton or chocolate we are, in fact, taking advantage of child labor. The pictures he uses within his presentation, mostly young brown-‐skinned kids, reinforce his point and perspective tugging on emotional strings and some form of non-‐specific guilt that Westerner’s carry knowing that our way of life probably is supported by our standing on the shoulders of many less-‐fortunate people. The images are clearly at odds with how we in the developed world perceive our own guilt or complicity within this issue of child labor. We don’t see ourselves individually as exploiting these children and his presentation effectively chips away