Tuesday 8 May 2012

THE PRICE OF OUR COMFORT.


        It is easy in our society to fall for the illusion that you can be green and ethical and still fit in somewhere. With modern globalisation practically everything we touch has been produced by brutal exploitation somewhere in some dismal corner of the planet. Social networking, so popular in the developed world, relies on mobile phones and computers, both rather dirty things. That cheap pair of jeans and that cheap cotton shirt, somebody sweated blood for hours to get the raw material. It is very difficult not to be party to that exploitation. Of course we can try and we can campaign for a greener world, a more ethical world, but the bottom line is if we don't change the economic system under which all that merchandise is produced, then the exploitation will just move around the planet.


        Information is the key, if people know the full trail of the things they use, then I'm sure they would see the injustice of such things as migrant workers working 10 hour shifts in blazing sunshine in California’s fruit farms with no reasonable breaks, insufficient water and below the minimum wage, so that your local supermarket can have cheap fruit on their shelves. Also of course producing massive profits for the corporate body and its shareholders. Certainly we should strive for a greener and more ethical world but never lose sight of the fact that it is the economic system that is the problem, not the individual corporate body that does the exploiting. Seeking a more caring compassionate corporate world, is much the same as asking the fox to be a little bit more caring towards the chickens.


ann arky's home.

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