The Enduring Problem...
In the last little while I have really been challenged about how I live my life. I am making a switch, which at this point dear friends, you have either heard entirely too much about or none at all and the point is really neither here nor there. I have been thinking a lot about how my life needs to reflect what I want to do, am called to do, even when I am not yet able to do it. By this I mean my vocation. I sit in my development classes and become passionate about holistic development. I see that fair trade and microfinance works- that it is possible to change lives and give people something to live on, moreover, it gives the a "hope and a future." But it doesn't work if we don't do anything about it. So I got on this fair trade kick.The problem is (in the words of Clint Curle paraphrasing Derrida): "You have to choose, but you can't choose. You can't but you must but you can't but you must...." The whole deal of unjustly traded, fabricated and manufactured goods saturates our culture, our lives, our everyday. You don't have the money to buy fair-trade organic cotton clothing, but you must not to condone the sweatshops in China. You can't ignore the poor, but you must be clothed.
what do you do?
posted by Kiki @ 12:15 p.m.
3 Comments:
wanna start an NGO with me?
i SO know where you're coming from. that's what i'm studying now too...and i face all those same challenges. right now, i "do my best" - whatever that is. buy organic produce, try to think about what and where i purchase. try to buy locally. one day, when i have money, i'll do more.
Vicious and cyclical and seemingly impossible to break.
Rob, that is so frigging classic YOU. Makes me laugh.
Rob- thats touching, thank you.
Ericka (and anyone else who cares to respond)- how do you feel about paying more for the ethical stuff, even if it means you get less? i know that ideally should be ok, but at the same time, why i find it so hard to do.
ps, if we start an ngo, it should be one that sells ethical clothes that look like they just came off a rasta convention (see http://www.fair-trade-clothes.co.uk/?gclid=CO7J6IiGpoQCFRW8JAodfXQDig )- the world needs more patchwork pants.
Andg- lulus are ethical...and they feel like buttah...you know you want a pair...
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home