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In the darkness before dawn, the workers file into the factory. When the last of them enters, a steel door slams shut behind them and whistle blow announces the beginning of another day’s work. Hundreds of children, none older than sixteen and often younger than twelve, work for the next twelve hours assembling machine tools that will produce weaponry, construction material and the day to day comforts of life for the citizens of their nation. They work without pause or break, unceasingly, hunched over their part of the assembly line until their eyes blur and the pain in their backs becomes unbearable.
The claustrophobia in the in the air is palpable; the workroom is no larger than it has to be, the ceiling is too low for many of the taller children, and there is little space between workstations. Security cameras swivel slowly back and forth recording everything and noting any signs of slacking. Eventually, after half a day of work that seems to have blurred into an eternity, a bell rings, announcing a thirty minute rest for lunch. The children open drawers beneath their workstations and pull out a small, bland packet of rations, which they quickly consume before sitting down on the floor and trying to get some sleep before having to start work again.
At last, another bell rings announcing the end of the day. Work halts and the children let out a collective sigh, before a voice speaks over the loudspeakers.
“DUE TO YOUR FAILURE TO MEET YEASTERDAY’S PRODUCTION QUOTA, WORK IS TO CONTINUE FOR ANOTHER TWO HOURS. IF THE QUOTA IS NOT MET BY THEN, RATIONS WILL BE WITHELD UNTIL IT IS.”
A loud groan echoes around the room, but the children know better than to waste time complaining. They slowly go back to work until a final bell announces that they are free to go. The steel door slides open and the children squeeze out as quickly as possible – with just another few hours until they must return for their next shift.
* Image fades out, replaced by a reporter's face *
What is this? Footage from some Third World dictatorship on Old Earth? Indonesia, perhaps? Pakistan? China?
No. This is the hidden side of the Peacekeeper economy. Under the pretence of ‘technical apprenticeships’, local production chiefs throughout the Peacekeeper faction, desperate keep up to schedule, press Drone children into service in these hellish factories, often for weeks at a time. In spite of the vast strides that have been taken in industrial automation, many production chiefs still find it cheaper to employ children; they need not request resources for the construction of robots, and they don’t need to admit that they’re behind schedule.
What makes this even worse is that, under the Marxist program pushed through and maintained by the CCCP, and further strengthened by the Pandemoniak Social Engineering Decree of 2213, it is entirely legal. The decree authorizes special ‘hands-on training classes’ for children at the discretion of local authorities; in practise, this means that as long as no-one objects, any child in the education system can be conscripted into the workforce indefinitely. Although political realities mean that the children of Talents and Citizens are effectively immune to this treatment, those of Drones, who are usually unemployed and mostly unskilled, are fair game. With parents who are often unskilled and without influence in the vast bureaucracy that governs the UN, they are willing to take whatever they can get – and this is often all they can get. The children, and their parents, are afraid to speak out for fear that they will lose their jobs – which is quite often the only thing keeping them going. The bureaucracy often takes months to approve requests for support from those without influence, and many such requests from Drones are refused in any case, or are insufficient to properly support them.
This is the world of a Drone in Peacekeeper society, a society which claims to be founded upon equality. It is a world few see, a hidden stain upon the honour of the United Nations. For the sake of our conscience, the rights of our people, and our claim to represent freedom on this planet, the existence of such a world cannot be tolerated.
“The time has come when silence is betrayal,” said Martin Luther King, “That time is now.”
The claustrophobia in the in the air is palpable; the workroom is no larger than it has to be, the ceiling is too low for many of the taller children, and there is little space between workstations. Security cameras swivel slowly back and forth recording everything and noting any signs of slacking. Eventually, after half a day of work that seems to have blurred into an eternity, a bell rings, announcing a thirty minute rest for lunch. The children open drawers beneath their workstations and pull out a small, bland packet of rations, which they quickly consume before sitting down on the floor and trying to get some sleep before having to start work again.
At last, another bell rings announcing the end of the day. Work halts and the children let out a collective sigh, before a voice speaks over the loudspeakers.
“DUE TO YOUR FAILURE TO MEET YEASTERDAY’S PRODUCTION QUOTA, WORK IS TO CONTINUE FOR ANOTHER TWO HOURS. IF THE QUOTA IS NOT MET BY THEN, RATIONS WILL BE WITHELD UNTIL IT IS.”
A loud groan echoes around the room, but the children know better than to waste time complaining. They slowly go back to work until a final bell announces that they are free to go. The steel door slides open and the children squeeze out as quickly as possible – with just another few hours until they must return for their next shift.
* Image fades out, replaced by a reporter's face *
What is this? Footage from some Third World dictatorship on Old Earth? Indonesia, perhaps? Pakistan? China?
No. This is the hidden side of the Peacekeeper economy. Under the pretence of ‘technical apprenticeships’, local production chiefs throughout the Peacekeeper faction, desperate keep up to schedule, press Drone children into service in these hellish factories, often for weeks at a time. In spite of the vast strides that have been taken in industrial automation, many production chiefs still find it cheaper to employ children; they need not request resources for the construction of robots, and they don’t need to admit that they’re behind schedule.
What makes this even worse is that, under the Marxist program pushed through and maintained by the CCCP, and further strengthened by the Pandemoniak Social Engineering Decree of 2213, it is entirely legal. The decree authorizes special ‘hands-on training classes’ for children at the discretion of local authorities; in practise, this means that as long as no-one objects, any child in the education system can be conscripted into the workforce indefinitely. Although political realities mean that the children of Talents and Citizens are effectively immune to this treatment, those of Drones, who are usually unemployed and mostly unskilled, are fair game. With parents who are often unskilled and without influence in the vast bureaucracy that governs the UN, they are willing to take whatever they can get – and this is often all they can get. The children, and their parents, are afraid to speak out for fear that they will lose their jobs – which is quite often the only thing keeping them going. The bureaucracy often takes months to approve requests for support from those without influence, and many such requests from Drones are refused in any case, or are insufficient to properly support them.
This is the world of a Drone in Peacekeeper society, a society which claims to be founded upon equality. It is a world few see, a hidden stain upon the honour of the United Nations. For the sake of our conscience, the rights of our people, and our claim to represent freedom on this planet, the existence of such a world cannot be tolerated.
“The time has come when silence is betrayal,” said Martin Luther King, “That time is now.”
With a few word changes, this text could be used to show the drawbacks of Free Market, instead of Planned as you are trying to do. Let's try:
I like the "Although political realities mean that the children of Talents and Citizens are effectively immune to this treatment" of the original, great imagination. However, I think we an equal democracy, as we have, it cannot happen. Planned makes no difference to 'political realities' IMHO, it is just an economic state.
If you want to debate the veracity or otherwise of the documentary, do so, but try to refrain from comparing everyone more than one millimetre to the right of you to a Nazi.
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