A song lyric fitting the season that is fast approaching...
Beatitudes of Buylessness
"Blessed are the Consumers, for you shall be free from Living By Products…
Blessed are you who stumble out of branded Main Streets, for you shall find lovers not downloaded and oceans not rising.
Blessed is the ordinary citizen who holds onto a patch of public commons, for you are the New World.
Blessed is the artist who is not corporate sponsored for you shall give birth to warm fronts of emotion and breakthroughs of Peace.
Blessed are you who confuse “Consumerism” with “Freedom,” for you shall be delighted to discover the difference.
Blessed are the advertisers and commercial celebrities, for you are waiting for the remarkable restfulness of honesty.
Blessed are city neighborhoods that people have flown from in fear, for your children shall return to illuminate the dark economy.
Blessed are the workers in the supermalls, for the town your employers’ killed shall come back to life!
Blessed is the breadwinner with out-sourced dreams who sits in the SUV stuck in a Christmas from Hell, this year a gift will set you free
Blessed are the young women in sweatshops, for the things you make will fly you like magic evening gowns to the City of Light
Blessed are you who disturb the customers, for you might be loving your neighbor."
words:bill talen
music: william moses (From the motion picture "What would Jesus buy?" featuring Reverend Billy)
Showing posts with label consumer ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consumer ethics. Show all posts
Monday, 26 November 2007
Monday, 17 September 2007
Breakfast in bed as sustainable consumption
I recently celebrated my 32:nd birthday and was woken up at 6 a.m by lovely Anna in a fashion fitting a disipline of consumption we´ve been trying to consiously embrace since this summer.
This lovely woman served me a delicious chocolate cake from Barista and also gave me a grey sweater from Uma Bazaar (imported through Kuyichi). A café and a store that both attempt to make fair trade and organic food/clothes more commonplace.
I call this a "discipline" for two reasons:
- First: The somewhat "negative" sense of "restraint of trade" and conscious behaviour in the word is a true one. We have found it difficult at times not to buy the often cheaper (and commercially more accessible) products that we enjoy and crave. Buying the more realisticly priced fairtrade and organic products limits our possibilities to consume and therefore asks serious questions to a society and cultur that is largely driven by consumerism. Questions that I suggest might have to to with the justice apparent in what Jesus calls "The Kingdom of God".
- Second: "Discipline" and discipleship are, in a deep sense, related words. Being a follower of Jesus (a disciple)means taking on disciplines that transform You and reveal a healthy and sustainable way of life. A life reflecting this "Kingdom of God" in our everyday lives.
The most reasonable way to live in any circumstance one might say.
My wife reminded me of that while celebrating my birthday with a chocolate cake breakfast in bed
This lovely woman served me a delicious chocolate cake from Barista and also gave me a grey sweater from Uma Bazaar (imported through Kuyichi). A café and a store that both attempt to make fair trade and organic food/clothes more commonplace.
I call this a "discipline" for two reasons:
- First: The somewhat "negative" sense of "restraint of trade" and conscious behaviour in the word is a true one. We have found it difficult at times not to buy the often cheaper (and commercially more accessible) products that we enjoy and crave. Buying the more realisticly priced fairtrade and organic products limits our possibilities to consume and therefore asks serious questions to a society and cultur that is largely driven by consumerism. Questions that I suggest might have to to with the justice apparent in what Jesus calls "The Kingdom of God".
- Second: "Discipline" and discipleship are, in a deep sense, related words. Being a follower of Jesus (a disciple)means taking on disciplines that transform You and reveal a healthy and sustainable way of life. A life reflecting this "Kingdom of God" in our everyday lives.
The most reasonable way to live in any circumstance one might say.
My wife reminded me of that while celebrating my birthday with a chocolate cake breakfast in bed
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
Cocoa related hope
This morning i saw a short documentary on BBC World called "Bittersweet" . And it did indeed leave me with just that mixed taste in my mouth.
The short recap of it is this:
The Ivory Coast is the single largest export country for cocoa beans in the world. The demand for cocoa products has steadily increased since the 80:s but the money paid to the farmers has stayed the same thus creating a huge gap between demand and salary. With increasing demand, cocoa farmers are getting poorer and the working conditions are getting worse - many working for minimum or no wages and many are child laborers forced to work and away from school to support their families. In 2003 there was approximately 103.000 child laborers working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms in what has been described as the worst form of child labour.
In 2001 a bill was passed in the US congress obliging the chocolate industry not to use child slave labour in the process of harvesting cocoa beans. The result has so far been poor or none.
About the mixed taste then:
A bitter taste - coming from the (in many ways unvoluntary!?) sad numbness of the big corporation (Nestlé ,Cargill) ceo:s and the middle men (those who buy and sell the unrefined product), the hunger for profit disregarding the suffering of others (minimum or no-wage workers in the cocoa plantations) and the fact that I, as a consumer, for so many years never realised that my sweet tooth was being pleased by and through someone elses slave like labour.
This, using the language of theology, is - evil!
It is proof of a broken world
More on taste now:
A sweet taste - from the fact that there are congressmen and faitrade company ceo:s that want to make a change even if it will end up doubling the retail prices for our favourite Twix-bars and M&M:s. A sweet taste also from the fact that my knowledge of who my "neighbour" is allows me to participate in a change. A change and an activity (You might even say way of life) that Jesus calls "The rule of God" . (or The Kingdom of God/heaven)
This rule is about justice.
The kind of justice that operates on behalf of the poor and powerless (or slave-laborers on cocoa plantations) and opposes the numbness and greed that put them into that kind of life. This justice - and the way of life it is significant of - creates an opportunity for me and you to buy chocolate (or tea, coffee, rice, sugar, fruit, clothes etc) that provides decent wages, decent education and freedom to people that are now on minimum or no-wage and risk staying there the rest of their lives.
However, we might think of an opportunity as something that we make a buck out of rather than ending up paying doubled prices for our favourite choc-bars.
It´s a matter of identity.
Jesus speaks about neighbour love, and when he does that his focus is not on me (suprise?). It´s on my neighbour and on how God sees him/her. I can only be my true self if I stop "reflecting on me" first, and instead take on the identity of a generous, neighbour-loving God and see to my neighbours needs.
So who is my neighbour in a globalized world, a glocal village?
If God´s rule is about justice, then I´m pretty sure one of my neighbours must be that 10 year old boy harvesting cocoa beans for no wage, missing out on a proper education.
My opportunity then, to promote the just rule of God (read: In this case decent wages, educational possibilities etc) is to stop and to start!
Stop buying stuff that is not fairly and ethically traded!
Start buying stuff that is fairly and etichally traded and start looking for opportunities to promote justice in your global neighbourhood. Why not write some letters to the ceo:s of Nestlé and Cargill?
Those are the basics!
Basics folks...
Further steps might include:
Getting your group of close friends, your church or company to start or support microfinance enterprises. Taking a decision (and this is "mandatory" for churches only...) on spending 50% of your money on work among, and on behalf of, the poor and powerless in and outside of your local community.
Actually it seems that the church of the first two centuries largely did that in one way or another ... well actually they seem to have spent far more than 50%, but let´s start somewhere managable shall we?
You can find a Global Exchange document on the situation in The Ivory Coast, on child labour, fairtrade and the chocolate industry here.
The short recap of it is this:
The Ivory Coast is the single largest export country for cocoa beans in the world. The demand for cocoa products has steadily increased since the 80:s but the money paid to the farmers has stayed the same thus creating a huge gap between demand and salary. With increasing demand, cocoa farmers are getting poorer and the working conditions are getting worse - many working for minimum or no wages and many are child laborers forced to work and away from school to support their families. In 2003 there was approximately 103.000 child laborers working in hazardous conditions on cocoa farms in what has been described as the worst form of child labour.
In 2001 a bill was passed in the US congress obliging the chocolate industry not to use child slave labour in the process of harvesting cocoa beans. The result has so far been poor or none.
About the mixed taste then:
A bitter taste - coming from the (in many ways unvoluntary!?) sad numbness of the big corporation (Nestlé ,Cargill) ceo:s and the middle men (those who buy and sell the unrefined product), the hunger for profit disregarding the suffering of others (minimum or no-wage workers in the cocoa plantations) and the fact that I, as a consumer, for so many years never realised that my sweet tooth was being pleased by and through someone elses slave like labour.
This, using the language of theology, is - evil!
It is proof of a broken world
More on taste now:
A sweet taste - from the fact that there are congressmen and faitrade company ceo:s that want to make a change even if it will end up doubling the retail prices for our favourite Twix-bars and M&M:s. A sweet taste also from the fact that my knowledge of who my "neighbour" is allows me to participate in a change. A change and an activity (You might even say way of life) that Jesus calls "The rule of God" . (or The Kingdom of God/heaven)
This rule is about justice.
The kind of justice that operates on behalf of the poor and powerless (or slave-laborers on cocoa plantations) and opposes the numbness and greed that put them into that kind of life. This justice - and the way of life it is significant of - creates an opportunity for me and you to buy chocolate (or tea, coffee, rice, sugar, fruit, clothes etc) that provides decent wages, decent education and freedom to people that are now on minimum or no-wage and risk staying there the rest of their lives.
However, we might think of an opportunity as something that we make a buck out of rather than ending up paying doubled prices for our favourite choc-bars.
It´s a matter of identity.
Jesus speaks about neighbour love, and when he does that his focus is not on me (suprise?). It´s on my neighbour and on how God sees him/her. I can only be my true self if I stop "reflecting on me" first, and instead take on the identity of a generous, neighbour-loving God and see to my neighbours needs.
So who is my neighbour in a globalized world, a glocal village?
If God´s rule is about justice, then I´m pretty sure one of my neighbours must be that 10 year old boy harvesting cocoa beans for no wage, missing out on a proper education.
My opportunity then, to promote the just rule of God (read: In this case decent wages, educational possibilities etc) is to stop and to start!
Stop buying stuff that is not fairly and ethically traded!
Start buying stuff that is fairly and etichally traded and start looking for opportunities to promote justice in your global neighbourhood. Why not write some letters to the ceo:s of Nestlé and Cargill?
Those are the basics!
Basics folks...
Further steps might include:
Getting your group of close friends, your church or company to start or support microfinance enterprises. Taking a decision (and this is "mandatory" for churches only...) on spending 50% of your money on work among, and on behalf of, the poor and powerless in and outside of your local community.
Actually it seems that the church of the first two centuries largely did that in one way or another ... well actually they seem to have spent far more than 50%, but let´s start somewhere managable shall we?
You can find a Global Exchange document on the situation in The Ivory Coast, on child labour, fairtrade and the chocolate industry here.
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