Thursday, May 20, 2010

Life's A Debate: Stash or Slash (or How some companies find it so hard to recycle)




My darling devotees,

A couple of nights ago, I watched Blood, Sweat and Luxuries a TV show about a couple of privileged young British consumers who are taken to the parts of Asia and Africa where some of their luxury goods are originally sourced and made to experience the low standards of living that the average third-world luxury good worker has to survive with. In the episode I watched, the young adults were taken to Ethiopia, to work on coffee plantations and in coffee drying factories, alongside local workers, and to try and survive on the ridiculously low wages (of about a $1 a day ) the people have to survive on each day. By the end of the episode, quite a few of them had formed some pretty strong opinions about the luxury good industry at large and the coffee industry in particular. Some were tearing up at the injustice of it all and others claimed to be determined to buy only fair trade from now on. In another episode, they were horrified by how much of the toxic technological trash of the West ends up on the coast of countries like Ghana, and appalled by the poverty in which the people who mine gold live.

Watching this show filled me with so much sadness and a huge sense of injustice. I try to focus on the bright side and good things in life as much as possible but I am very aware that there are many things wrong with the world in which we live. I do not divorce myself from it and pretend it doesn't exist, instead I acknowledge it's presence and try to fix what ails the world while not letting it get me down. I am amazed by the number of people that can be aware of all the hurt and turn a blind eye. Some claim that you can't fix everything so why even try, but just because you can't save everyone doesn't mean you shouldn't save anyone. No one can person can save the world alone but I really believe that if we all make an effort, we can really change things up.

Now the debate comes in with what exactly is constituted as making an effort? Should clothing companies be allowed to slash their unsold goods when there are people desperately in need of clothing all over the world? Should luxury good refiners in the first world be allowed to pay so little for the primary goods they get from the third world countries when they make so much more from the finished goods? My answer to both questions is no, but that's just my opinion. I don't own any of these companies or have any direct influence on them so alone I probably can't make them change but if more people support stores that are fair trade then there will be pressure on the other companies to change.
But yeah. Now you know where I stand on the fair trade issue, I would love to know what you all think about fair trade and any of the other similar issues, like buying cheap clothes that are non- fair trade, which probably means they come from sweat shops, as opposed to buying slightly more expensive clothing. Give me your opinions about what ails the world and how we should fix it in the comments below.

Love you all and Stay inspired,



P.S. So let me know what you think. Are you vegan or vegetarian for the environment? What do you think about fair trade? Do you think that their should be policies prohibiting things like slashing unused goods? What about policies about recycling and pollution? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.

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