philosopher of the dangerous maybe

Sino Tibetan figure of Tara     

Circa 1800 AD to 1900 AD

Dimensions 6″ (15.2cm) high

Medium Gilt Bronze

Young boys help stack bricks inside a kiln in Dhading district, Nepal. Despite a national law that bans children under the age of 14 from working, such scenes are commonplace in the country’s brick making industry. A 2012 study estimated that up to 28,000 children are working in brick kilns across Nepal, of whom half are under 14. Kiln owners and the migrant families they employee often say children want to help in their free time, denying that they’re forcing them to work. But Homraj Acharya, a children’s rights activist, says that argument is a slippery slope. “The reason we have zero tolerance is because if you allow some leeway, people will take advantage of it,” he says. “They will push the boundaries.”

Image and caption by Ann Hermes. Nepal, 2016.

Yvonne Zipter, from “Manners of the Flesh,” Southern Humanities Review (vol. 49, no. 1, 2015)

I hope so.