12 Matching Annotations
  1. Jul 2017
    1. Slaves lured or captured from the pool of vulnerable migrants are then forced to rip up the earth or level the forests, completing the cycle

      The cycle keeps on repeating itself so it seems like there is no way out.

    2. other fruits of slavery

      All of our luxuries come from the fruit of slavery. Doesn't make it sound very appetizing.

    3. pull our cellphones from the earth, our clothing, our computers, our flat-screen televisions, our cars—it all comes from the earth, ultimatel

      Never really think about where everything comes from. Everything we have comes from the earth and we forget to take of it while trying to attain all of these things.

    4. Cellphones have become electronic umbilical cords connecting us

      Cellphones really have become a part of everyone. We can live without our cellphones it has become attached to us.

    5. Slavery in granite quarries is a family affair enforced by a tricky scheme based on debt.

      Debt passed on from relatives should not be passed onto someone and worked off by slavery. This is terribly sad this is still going on this century. In the U.S we are so blinded by our culture" and ways of living we don't see who was effected in the process of getting what we want.

    6. Slavery is a great way to keep your costs down

      It's hard to believe in this day and age people are still using slavery, especially for reasons like keeping costs down.

    7. The markup on tombstones is equally high. The red granite tombstones that sell for $500 to $1,000 in the United States

      I use to work at a cemetery and I know the funeral business pretty well. The tombstones we would sell were marked up over 50% of the sale price. To make a profit they were charging so much money that some people were settling to just leave a little grave markers for their loved ones.

    8. In the United States, the average cost of installing those countertops runs from $2,000 to $8,000, but the price charged by Indian exporters for polished red granite is just $5 to $15 per square meter—that comes to about $100 for all the granite your kitchen needs

      It is crazy how much we mark up most goods and services. Being from another country I know how expensive anything in the U.S is. But we do this to keep up with our high standards of living

    9. It’s not because they don’t know that people are going to die; it’s more a product of the complete control the government exerts over death and funerals.

      Government controls everything even death

    10. It’s the most dramatic and yet the most mundane event of a life, something we all do, no exceptions, no passes.

      Intense way to think of death. So true and frightening.