In Feb I wrote about the amount of economic privilege all Americans have. In March I wrote about the extremely poor conditions in which people around the world work to produce in expensive items that we in the US consume (really wage theft - working for $1 a day, etc.) Each month I asked us to keep these things in mind, to consider different consumer patterns etc. But in this month's post I want to contemplate what it would mean for us to live as if we were actually connected to people living half way around the world who work "for us".
I remember once a few years ago putting on a sweater and then having the amazing obvious but penetrating thought: "someone made this for me." (This is not like the joke about a pre-schooler being asked where the apple they were eating comes from and their saying: "the grocery store".) On some level I confess I have operated most of my life as if sweaters come into existence completely made in the shopping mall, and that my computers, and furniture, cars, etc do as well. I have two sweaters that were knit for me by someone who loves me and I'm clear where those came from. When I stopped to consider this I realized that materials were gathered together and made into fabric, and then someone ran some sort of machine that created pieces and someone else (more well off) had designed it. And in some final stage of production someone sewed together pieces. I noticed as I considered this that these were all people in other countries and probably poor and people of color. So when I go shopping and look at different options - thinking about what they look like, different colors, the rest of my wardrobe, and how "affordable" each item is, I am missing the fact that the cheapest "finds" are probably made with the cheapest labor, probably represent the most suffering. However, the only place I know that had clothes actually made in the US "American Apparel" was "expensive" because of labor costs and just went out of business last year.
What if I lived as if...there were real people serving me, real people making everything I consume, real people suffering if the work conditions there are poor? It would not change the choices available to me. On one level hundreds of choices for every product - but in this globalized economy actually little to no choice to buy a product not made in other countries and under poor working conditions. When I was a child it was a thing where many progressives would only buy "union made" - that was thought of by some as them being "clickish" or over the top pro-union, but in fact it was a way of trying to avoid buying things that were made under abusive working conditions and thus keep the pressure up for good conditions. However, shortly after achieving the highest level of unionization in our history, the globalized economy started with it's "race to the bottom" of out sourcing of jobs to the poorest countries (that paid the least). And those with means benefited by being able to buy even more, less expensive stuff - and those who had been middle class lost jobs and lost economic ground.
So while I don't have a way around globalization - it seems like a starting point would be to have in mind the real people who make the things I buy. To offer a silent prayer of thanks, to hold the intention that they become fairly compensated for their work. To in the instances where I can make choices that support justice to do so - so to buy fair trade chocolate, coffee or bananas instead of "regular" ones produced exploitatively. To use some of the "privilege" I have as part of the world's 1% to pay for organic food so that it is produced in ways that are less destructive to the earth. To look at the information at the Enough Project website mentioned last month to at least buy electronic products, etc at the fairer end of the spectrum (knowing it is still not enough, but at least a step.) This also means that the furniture in my home is actually wood rather than processed woods because it means the wood is from the US and that it has been made by a US carpenter and not with a lot of off gassing products. It means that I'm trying to buy more clothes that are made out of organic cottons (less hard on the earth) balanced with more second hand clothes (so less production and less expensive, unlike the organic cotton. It means that I will consider buying things made at craftfairs (very expensive) because they are not made under abusive work conditions. Because they are more expensive I will buy less items. And I will keep remembering the real wealth I have in comparison to most of the world's population.
When I have watched period piece movies where people in lavish extravagantly embroidered and silk, etc clothes get in horse drawn carriages where servants drive the carriage, serve the food, do the chores, etc I think "how did they live like that?" just walking past these servants as if they were not there, taking what they did with little to no acknowledgement, having probably some awareness at some points of those people's struggles and yet just shrugging those off. Some how the class gap is so obvious to me in those cases. And yet is it any better that I do not see the poor people who serve we half way around the globe? That I simply do not know the suffering they experience? If you go in a fast food restaurant - do you see the person taking your order and bringing your food as someone who is working full time for a "minimum" wage that is in fact not enough to live on?
Recently I went in a restaurant with a friend. It is not uncommon for waiters or waitresses to say "I am Jean and I will be your server today." This one did not say that. My friend said very deliberately and with a kind and attentive voice: "And what is your name?" and then referred to that person by name throughout the meal thanking them for bringing food. I was touched. I was touched by this modeling of what it means to live as if...I am cognizant of the human beings co-creating the world we live in.
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suffering. Show all posts
Sunday, April 29, 2018
Saturday, March 31, 2018
The Seeds of War, Suffering and Climate Change
Last month I wrote a post: Who is Wealthy? Designed to help US citizens understand how much income they have relative to other people from the US and how even a median income in the US makes us part of the 1% of the world. This month I would like to look at the labor practices in other parts of the world that allow us to buy cheap items from elsewhere in ways that enrich our lives while keeping in poverty and suffering people around the globe.
One of the most famous John Woolman quotes is: "May we look upon our treasure, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try to discover whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions." At the time Woolman wrote, he was of course thinking both of slavery and also of wars that were fought over resources. In modern day translation I would add: whether the seeds of war, suffering and climate change have nourishment in these our possessions.
For example many people are aware of "conflict minerals": tin, tungsten, tantalum (3ts) and gold which are mined in African countries, and particularly the Congo, controlled by guerrilla groups using the money to fund a civil war which has killed over 5 million people since 1998. Amnesty International has also documented the use of child laborers, as young as age 7, being made to work in these mines. These materials are used to make smart phones and many computer chips. Only 16% of our phones are even recycled -so these built to be obsolete items contain materials we throw away that others have literally died for. Efforts by a company named Fairphone to build a completely non-conflict sourced phone have yet to be successful
Gold of course is also used in jewelry as are diamonds: also known as "blood diamonds" in some circles because of the violence associated with them. African miners make a dollar a day, again often use child labor and work in war zones. Violence is often directed against the workers and the environmental practices leave areas around the mine devastated. 2
The Enough Project attempts to provide us some rankings for these companies so we can reduce our complicity. For example Apple has done a pretty good job of reducing its conflict minerals followed by Google, HP, Microsoft, and trailing at the bottom Samsung and then Toshiba. For Jewelers the department stores that have the most blood on their jewelry are not surprisingly Walmart and Sears being worst, Helzberg and Costco close to the bottom and with Signet and then Tiffany's doing the best.3
And then there is Chocolate. For years the media has been documenting that African (Ivory Coast and Ghana producing 60% of the worlds cocoa) has child labor and even child slavery being used to pick chocolate.4 Many of these same issues surround the production of coffee, teas, bananas and coffee. Fortunately there is a Fair Trade designation for these products that attempts (some better than others) to document that fair labor practices, as well as environmental standards, were used in the production.5
Cotton of course is in our clothes. If not organic it has been produced with chemicals very hard on the earth. But really for all our clothes when you look at the label that says where it has been made, almost inevitably you will see some of the poorest countries in the world where there are not protective labor laws and where workers work long hours for little pay. Sweat shops have simply moved abroad. This is why inexpensive clothing can be found for prices you could not match by just buying the fabric and making it yourself in this country.
Before I completely leave this list of horrors there is also the rape of the earth categories. If you were to see pictures of areas of the amazon that have been clear cut to: provide cheap teak wood, land for raising cheap beef for $1 fast food hamburgers, or for palm oil which is in most processed foods and beauty products in the US you would be horrified by the pictures. Yet we innocently buy these products with no awareness of the havoc that was wrecked to bring them to us. Deforestation is one the huge contributors to climate change. (10 to 15% of the Greenhouse gases)
So yikes: here are the seeds of war, suffering and climate change in our cellphones, our computers, our electronics, our jewelry, our food, our clothing, our cosmetics, and our furniture. I really was not trying to depress the hell out of you! I know most of my f/Friends would not stand in front of a child factory or a clear cut forest and buy the products coming out of there. We in fact have happily believed that child labor, slavery and environmental destruction were things that were outlawed a 100 to 40 years ago. Well they were in the US. But one of the results of globalization is that it hard to find a product that in solely and completely produced in the US. Most ingredients or components at least come from other countries where they were extracted with cheap labor and in environmentally destructive ways and then the finished products or the components for assembly were sent to another country or the US for final assembly. We are inexplicably bound to suffering around the globe that is conveniently kept out of our sight. Perhaps because we would not participate in it if we could see it.
So as painful as this is the first step in changing this is bringing its reality into our awareness. Looking at our possessions and understanding in fact where they do come from, seeing the humans behind our possessions. Unfortunately, in the globalized economy it is not possible to live in an industrial country and be able to separate yourself from this chain of suffering. So there is not a way to achieve some moral purity - there is only the possibility to start pushing back and trying to create more justice and fairness one bit at a time.
What are some of the solutions:
1) Buy less - you will create less suffering - to quote an old saying: "Live simply so others may simply live".
2) Recycle and reuse and repair - as 70's as that sounds when we reuse materials more mining does not go on. When we reuse items more new production does not go on.
3) Learn about fair trade certifications and buy products that bare fair trade labels. Yes it will cost more - I think it is worth it to not support child labor, slavery and people working for $1 a day. I will have to buy less and save for some things - and probablt represents the true costs and a more fair balance of resources in the world anyway.
4) Look at the Enough Project and try to buy on the fairer end of the spectrum - create consumer pressure for products that are produced with fair labor and environmental standards. Buy a Fairphone the next time you replace your cellphone.
5) Buy less processed foods - they are healthier for you anyway but they will not contain palm oil or foods produced with cheap labor in another country.
6) Consider giving services and not things as gifts to others.
7) When possible buy items made by artisans in your own community. (Examples: hand made jewelry, clothing, items made by wood workers, bakers, carpenters, etc in your own community.)
1 http://www.newstalk.com/Can-you-buy-a-conflict-free-phone-minerals-intel-fairphone-apple
2.https://www.brilliantearth.com/conflict-diamond-facts/
3. https://enoughproject.org/reports/demand-the-supply
4. http://fortune.com/big-chocolate-child-labor/
5. https://www.fairtradewinds.net/guide-fair-trade-labels/
One of the most famous John Woolman quotes is: "May we look upon our treasure, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try to discover whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions." At the time Woolman wrote, he was of course thinking both of slavery and also of wars that were fought over resources. In modern day translation I would add: whether the seeds of war, suffering and climate change have nourishment in these our possessions.
For example many people are aware of "conflict minerals": tin, tungsten, tantalum (3ts) and gold which are mined in African countries, and particularly the Congo, controlled by guerrilla groups using the money to fund a civil war which has killed over 5 million people since 1998. Amnesty International has also documented the use of child laborers, as young as age 7, being made to work in these mines. These materials are used to make smart phones and many computer chips. Only 16% of our phones are even recycled -so these built to be obsolete items contain materials we throw away that others have literally died for. Efforts by a company named Fairphone to build a completely non-conflict sourced phone have yet to be successful
Gold of course is also used in jewelry as are diamonds: also known as "blood diamonds" in some circles because of the violence associated with them. African miners make a dollar a day, again often use child labor and work in war zones. Violence is often directed against the workers and the environmental practices leave areas around the mine devastated. 2
The Enough Project attempts to provide us some rankings for these companies so we can reduce our complicity. For example Apple has done a pretty good job of reducing its conflict minerals followed by Google, HP, Microsoft, and trailing at the bottom Samsung and then Toshiba. For Jewelers the department stores that have the most blood on their jewelry are not surprisingly Walmart and Sears being worst, Helzberg and Costco close to the bottom and with Signet and then Tiffany's doing the best.3
And then there is Chocolate. For years the media has been documenting that African (Ivory Coast and Ghana producing 60% of the worlds cocoa) has child labor and even child slavery being used to pick chocolate.4 Many of these same issues surround the production of coffee, teas, bananas and coffee. Fortunately there is a Fair Trade designation for these products that attempts (some better than others) to document that fair labor practices, as well as environmental standards, were used in the production.5
Cotton of course is in our clothes. If not organic it has been produced with chemicals very hard on the earth. But really for all our clothes when you look at the label that says where it has been made, almost inevitably you will see some of the poorest countries in the world where there are not protective labor laws and where workers work long hours for little pay. Sweat shops have simply moved abroad. This is why inexpensive clothing can be found for prices you could not match by just buying the fabric and making it yourself in this country.
Before I completely leave this list of horrors there is also the rape of the earth categories. If you were to see pictures of areas of the amazon that have been clear cut to: provide cheap teak wood, land for raising cheap beef for $1 fast food hamburgers, or for palm oil which is in most processed foods and beauty products in the US you would be horrified by the pictures. Yet we innocently buy these products with no awareness of the havoc that was wrecked to bring them to us. Deforestation is one the huge contributors to climate change. (10 to 15% of the Greenhouse gases)
So yikes: here are the seeds of war, suffering and climate change in our cellphones, our computers, our electronics, our jewelry, our food, our clothing, our cosmetics, and our furniture. I really was not trying to depress the hell out of you! I know most of my f/Friends would not stand in front of a child factory or a clear cut forest and buy the products coming out of there. We in fact have happily believed that child labor, slavery and environmental destruction were things that were outlawed a 100 to 40 years ago. Well they were in the US. But one of the results of globalization is that it hard to find a product that in solely and completely produced in the US. Most ingredients or components at least come from other countries where they were extracted with cheap labor and in environmentally destructive ways and then the finished products or the components for assembly were sent to another country or the US for final assembly. We are inexplicably bound to suffering around the globe that is conveniently kept out of our sight. Perhaps because we would not participate in it if we could see it.
So as painful as this is the first step in changing this is bringing its reality into our awareness. Looking at our possessions and understanding in fact where they do come from, seeing the humans behind our possessions. Unfortunately, in the globalized economy it is not possible to live in an industrial country and be able to separate yourself from this chain of suffering. So there is not a way to achieve some moral purity - there is only the possibility to start pushing back and trying to create more justice and fairness one bit at a time.
What are some of the solutions:
1) Buy less - you will create less suffering - to quote an old saying: "Live simply so others may simply live".
2) Recycle and reuse and repair - as 70's as that sounds when we reuse materials more mining does not go on. When we reuse items more new production does not go on.
3) Learn about fair trade certifications and buy products that bare fair trade labels. Yes it will cost more - I think it is worth it to not support child labor, slavery and people working for $1 a day. I will have to buy less and save for some things - and probablt represents the true costs and a more fair balance of resources in the world anyway.
4) Look at the Enough Project and try to buy on the fairer end of the spectrum - create consumer pressure for products that are produced with fair labor and environmental standards. Buy a Fairphone the next time you replace your cellphone.
5) Buy less processed foods - they are healthier for you anyway but they will not contain palm oil or foods produced with cheap labor in another country.
6) Consider giving services and not things as gifts to others.
7) When possible buy items made by artisans in your own community. (Examples: hand made jewelry, clothing, items made by wood workers, bakers, carpenters, etc in your own community.)
1 http://www.newstalk.com/Can-you-buy-a-conflict-free-phone-minerals-intel-fairphone-apple
2.https://www.brilliantearth.com/conflict-diamond-facts/
3. https://enoughproject.org/reports/demand-the-supply
4. http://fortune.com/big-chocolate-child-labor/
5. https://www.fairtradewinds.net/guide-fair-trade-labels/
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Spiritual Perspective
Just like in photography we can zoom in and have one perspective on something or we can zoom way out and with a little more distance see it as just part of a larger landscape. I am finding that this is
possible with spiritual perspective as well. Sometimes when we focus in closely on events that are happening in the world we are overcome by the sadness, the suffering, the cruelty, etc. But when I can step back into what I have previously described as the "River of God"... a perspective where I see at a distance the bustle of humanity, the cycle of birth, life and death...the multitude of human dramas: car accidents,falling in love, illness, small acts of kindness,evil bosses, parties, marital issues, bonuses, children squabbling, breathtaking beauty, jealousy and competition, art and creation, etc, etc. When I can see it all swirling in one unending drama that has gone on in slightly different forms and completely unchanged forms from the beginning of human history...I am able to see that even intense suffering, in this minute or da, will pass away again. I am able to see that even horrific
historic events occurring during this year in our society will also resolve Photos by Fay Anderson
(for better or worse and the
next series of events will arise and also pass away.) Even when I feel that climate change potentially carries in it the end of society as we know it, I am able to notice that the Black Plague and the nuclear arms race also felt that way...that we are not the first people to think they faced end times. This allows me to come to a place that Buddhist teachers talk about as "this too". It is a sort of seeing the suffering with an open heart, a heart of compassion. None of this invalidates or makes insignificant that which the close up view can show me, but it allows me to step back, to not be totally caught in that event, or that pain.
Please understand that I cannot always do this. There are times I am full of adrenaline or righteous indignation, or personal hurt and I am right in that close up shot and full of emotion. This is a relatively new spiritual development that is not always there. But I have had a glance of i,t and when I can do it I feel that I have entered the "peace that passes understanding."
This is also not to imply that from this farther out perspective one is able to just say: "Oh well". There is a beautiful passage in the bible where Jesus is looking down on Bethlehem from a hill and he sees the condition of mankind, and in the shortest sentence in the Bible it says of God incarnate: "Jesus wept." So there is a feeling of both love and compassion. Even God who has given us free will, is not completely in charge of what happens, but does care about it all.
Amidst all that human drama I described above there is still the possibility at every moment to use the evolving events for spiritual growth, and always the possibility to reach out to God and learn what God has for us to learn, to grow into a more profound relationship with God, and that is an even more profound spiritual shift!
historic events occurring during this year in our society will also resolve Photos by Fay Anderson
(for better or worse and the
Please understand that I cannot always do this. There are times I am full of adrenaline or righteous indignation, or personal hurt and I am right in that close up shot and full of emotion. This is a relatively new spiritual development that is not always there. But I have had a glance of i,t and when I can do it I feel that I have entered the "peace that passes understanding."
This is also not to imply that from this farther out perspective one is able to just say: "Oh well". There is a beautiful passage in the bible where Jesus is looking down on Bethlehem from a hill and he sees the condition of mankind, and in the shortest sentence in the Bible it says of God incarnate: "Jesus wept." So there is a feeling of both love and compassion. Even God who has given us free will, is not completely in charge of what happens, but does care about it all.
Amidst all that human drama I described above there is still the possibility at every moment to use the evolving events for spiritual growth, and always the possibility to reach out to God and learn what God has for us to learn, to grow into a more profound relationship with God, and that is an even more profound spiritual shift!
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