NYC Manhole Cover Tragedy [VIDEO]

I'm from a very small town in the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan. On the South Arm of Lake Charlevoix, where the Jordan River spills out, there's a little city called East Jordan.

The only reason the city still exists is because of the East Jordan Iron Works (now known as just 'EJ' officially, but it will always be EJIW) which sits on the Lake Charlevoix shore. Sure, the factory makes the town smell like rotten eggs a couple times a day, but for decades it has been the largest employer in the city. Pretty much everyone who lives there has someone in their family who works, or worked, for the Iron Works.

Everyone's hometown has a point-of-pride; something you can tell everyone your town is famous for. Being from East Jordan it's easy, you can point down to manhole covers from London to New Orleans, and see the name 'East Jordan' in cast-iron. Hell, you can find EJIW covers in Shreveport and Bossier.

Now that I've laid the foundation for this story, let me bring it home.

National Geographic recently did a story to find out more about the manhole covers of New York City. I would expect a city drenched in that much 'U-S-A, U-S-A' would have American made manhole covers. Being from East Jordan, I'd expect them to be EJIW ones. But it turns out, they're not from EJ...hell, they're not from Neenah Foundry in Wisconsin, or Vulcan Iron Works. Turns out, they're from India.

If you know anything about industry in India, you probably know where this is going. The manhole covers are pretty much slave-made.

What a huge slap-in-the-face to Americans, New Yorkers, and the people of East Jordan.

Check out the Nat Geo vid here: