As you consider how you might like to get started in your pursuit of greater justice in your life, perhaps you will allow me to tell you how I got involved in all of this.
A few years ago, I was sitting in a morning meeting with my colleagues at a large international humanitarian organization. The recent news on the radio had been about Nestlé, which had been accused of buying cocoa from plantations that used child slave labour of such an extreme variety that children were literally dropping dead from exhaustion. Naturally, I found this upsetting. Nestlé is ubiquitous. Even if we narrow the affected product lines down to only those that contain cocoa, the list is still substantial. Hot chocolate, flavoured non-dairy creamers, ice cream, various chocolate bar flavoured "milk" drinks and, of course, chocolate are all on the list. When I raised this issue at the meeting, there were of course the nodded heads that one might expect. When I suggested that this news piece should perhaps influence our purchasing decisions, it seemed the nodding stopped. When I suggested that we should perhaps consider giving up chocolate, there was a collective gasp of horror. I had crossed a line and the discussion was over.
Which brings me to this series of questions, which I have great difficulty in softening for the sensibilities of the delicate reader. So here we go: how bad do things have to be before we care enough to change our personal preferences? Are abused and enslaved children not a good enough reason to hesitate before picking up a product that really isn't good for us anyway? What is the difference between using African slaves in 1800 and using them in 2010? Is it only the location that is the problem? If people who work for a humanitarian organization react this way, how can we hope to influence those who have less awareness of the world around them?
Today, a cursory Google search on "Nestlé, child labour" will bring up a host of articles. Some focus on the trespasses of corporations like Nestlé. While mostly presented by various labour rights groups on their websites, the same quick search will also bring up articles in major newspapers about the ongoing problems in the cocoa industry. In addition to these more advocacy-driven pieces, you will find lengthy reports by major corporations on how their Corporate Social Responsibility platforms are now revolutionizing labour conditions, ensuring that children go to school, enjoy fine dining at local bistros, study music with the masters and are on the fast track to NASA and the Olympics. Well... maybe a slight exaggeration, but the tone is no less Utopian. How are these results measured? Who is doing the investigating? Who would fund the investigation and be sincerely seeking honest reports?
I find this enormously frustrating. I have chosen to advocate for Fair Trade chocolate because I am sure that at least the people doing the certification actually care about the quality of life of the workers. No system is ever perfect, and obviously there are gaps. But at least these gaps are the exception, not the rule.
I eat less chocolate in general these days, and while I occasionally suffer from shameful lapses in judgment, I hope that I am at least doing less harm. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. God help me!
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I think that the problem's location does have an impact, in that it's easier to ignore things that you can't see. That said, it's also remarkably easy to desensitise yourself to problems that are right in your face (such as the homeless guy you step over at the bus stop every day).
ReplyDeleteThe "how bad do things have to get" argument is a really hard one to address, and may not even have a straightforward answer - it depends on how badly you want the thing in question and how much you care about the wrongs that go along with it. As you pointed out, people who are best placed to know those wrongs don't necessarily occupy one end of that scale - when I was volunteering at an animal shelter, there were surprisingly few vegetarians.
Not having a straightforward answer seems endemic to this topic. It's shocking how completely we can live a dual existence without even questioning our duplicity.
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