My grocery store is often Kowalski’s. I shop there because they carry Peace Coffee which is always Fair Trade coffee – meaning workers receive a living wage. They also carry local produce that isn’t shipped great distances and supports local farmers.
But tonight while shopping there I was near the deli and noticed a big display of Fiji Water above the Olive Bar display. Really ???? Fiji Water??? Yikes! Do we really need to ship water from the other side of the world??
I took time to convey my shock and dismay to the manager. I explained why I shop at Kowalski’s in the first place (fair trade, local, organic) and why products like this bottled water make me want to RUN and SHOP SOMEWHERE ELSE.
You can do the same. You can make a difference. Take time to talk to the produce manager or store manager. They know, as I do, that just one person making a comment means at least twenty other customers thought the same but didn’t take the time to tell them. If two or more people have negative comments on a product that product is HISTORY! You can make a difference.
Bottled water is bad enough. It gives the impression that it’s OK to pay a high price for water – something every human person needs by virtue of being human. Just like we need clean air, we need clean water to survive.
Although there are rare times when bottled water may be necessary — there is never a time when it is necessary to import bottled water from the other side of the globe! What a waste of oil, plastic (more oil) and money!
Further, too many people living in Fiji do NOT have access to clean water. The American owners of Fiji water have taken over local water sources there (as if you can own the water supply of others’?) and now export what water they have out of the country. Read more here.
(Update 3-3-11 – Learn more about the problems of bottled water in general.
Around our small townhouse these days, simplicity looks like this:
Eliminate an entire set of dishes. Just because retailers and manufacturers try to get us to buy entire sets of dinnerware doesn’t mean we have to. Buy only those dishes that work for you. We have discovered that using these plain, white, porcelain low bowls replaces dinner plates, salad plates and soup bowls. At 10″ diameter, they are durable and inexpensive at $2 to $3 each. You can find them at IKEA, Pottery Barn, West Elm or Crate & Barrel. This clears out an entire shelf in my kitchen cabinet. There is an added benefit. If we eat in the living room or serve many buffet style, the scooped edges keep food and sauces in the bowl and off your lap or napkin. We stack six of them in the corner of our kitchen counter for easy access. This corner is otherwise wasted space. Best of all, because they are inexpensive, if one breaks it’s not a disaster. Simply buy one more.
Right now I am looking for thick-walled clear glass tumblers to use for both hot and cold drinks. Hopefully with a wider base than the picture above so they won’t tip easily. This would eliminate a miriad of mugs, wine glasses, cold drink glasses, etc. If you use cups with saucers, it would eliminate those too. Again one item, many uses. Kitchen shelves with space here we come!
Similar to this picture, we are using three tall glasses to hold forks, spoons and knives for quick use on our counter top. This makes our ONE large kitchen drawer available for knives and other utensils. Of course jam jars, canning jars or even antique tea tins could serve the same purpose.
These sturdy, but beautiful cotton dish towels in bright, seasonal colors function as kitchen towels but also as cloth dinner napkins. Look for a flat weave or jacquard weave. One item, two uses. They are often on sale this time of year.
Live electric cables at the feet of children in Juarez, Mx
Dublin and Paris are nice. But they give us a very limited view of the world. Not the world as it really is. The fact is that two thirds of the world lives in unimaginable poverty. We have a moral obligation to educate ourselves about what this means for the lives of others. We are all connected.
In 2004 I made my first trip to Juarez, Mexico. The purpose of this trip was to enter into the economic reality of the people living in Juarez, Mexico. Juarez is a city of 1.5 million people just across the border from El Paso, Texas. If it wasn’t for the U.S./Mexico border, the communities of Juarez and El Paso, Texas would appear to be one single community, much like my hometown of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Often it is difficult to tell where Minneapolis ends and St. Paul begins. However, in Juarez, because of the border they are not one community. Economically they are worlds apart.
The juncture of El Paso and Juarez is marketed as “the only place in the Western Hemisphere where the first world and the third world meet.” Although I avoid the use of the term “third world” which implies “third rate” or somehow “less than” and likewise implies that the “first world” is better or more than. I prefer the terms “global south” or “two thirds world.”
Upon arriving in El Paso, we noticed the nice middle class homes, manicured lawns, parks, and schools. In many ways it is similar to towns elsewhere in the United States. But when we crossed the border into Juarez things changed. The streets became gravel and the houses became corrugated metal and cardboard. People lived without electricity and plumbing. There were very few middle class neighborhoods and wide, green boulevards existed only in the industrial and commercial areas. Over the few days we visited, we spoke with many of the people living in Juarez. We came to learn that they work at the 350 U.S. and European factories there, that produce many of the name brand products and appliances that we use in the United States. The migrant house we stayed in, for example, was across the street from the Proctor Silex factory. People work in these factories for $4 a day. You read it correctly – not $40 a day, but $4 a day!
You might wonder if the cost of living is less in Juarez. So did we. So we made a trip to the local grocery store. Surprisingly the prices were the same or even higher than the prices at home. So, on $4 a day one can barely afford one meal much less attempt to feed an entire family and pay for housing, clothing etc. In Juarez, both parents work as well as any children over 12 years of age. For a family of four, this means they are trying to feed themselves on about $12 a day and pay for all other living expenses. It is an impossible task. That is why they are living in cardboard boxes with no electricity. And this is why our coffee makers, TV’s and clothing are so inexpensive. Components are shipped from the U.S. to Juarez. The cheap labor of the Mexican workers assembles the products and they are transported back to the U.S. for sale in our stores.
Death at the border, Juarez, Mx
The border between the U.S. and Mexico was supposed to be opened with the signing of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). Inherent in this agreement was the opening of the border to the free movement of people and goods. However, only Americans and their goods are moving freely across the border. The border is most definitely closed to Mexicans. Prior to the agreement Mexicans were able to move a little more freely between Mexico and the U.S. They often worked in El Paso during the day and returned to their homes and families at night. Now they cannot cross the border without risking being picked up or shot by the border patrol. Also, a 2,000-mile fence was installed just prior to NAFTA. I believe the factories in Juarez feared losing their cheap labor with the opening of the border and so pressured the Clinton administration to erect the fence. The border was further tightened in the Bush administration. We were informed that the U.S. spends around $2 billion each year to guard this border.
The fact is that Mexicans prefer to stay in Mexico. They do not want to move to the U.S. Like any of us they prefer to live in their own homeland. But they do need jobs that can support them and the jobs that pay better are in the U.S. Eliminating the border barriers would go a long way to raising wages in Mexico. With an open border, jobs in Juarez would need to pay more in order to compete with jobs paying minimum wage in El Paso. But corporations who own the factories in Juarez would prefer that the border remain closed and the wages remain immorally low and product prices remain cheaper than they truly should be.
Furthermore, this situation exists in factories around the world, for example in China and other Asian countries too. At bottom, this means we are living our lifestyles on the backs of other people. Someone mentioned that, nevertheless, it was generous for Americans to give up their paid vacations to visit Juarez. But this shows a lack of understanding of this entire economic situation. Companies can afford to provide us with “paid vacations” (ultimately paid for by whom?) and other benefits because the expenses for other items are so much less due to this cheap labor. Truly, everything we have (including paid vacations) is subsidized by this tragically cheap labor.
We spent our Easter Week in the colonias or neighborhoods of Juarez and talked with the people there. This was “mission in reverse.” We didn’t offer to do anything for them or build anything for them. How could we? It would have been arrogant for us to assume that we could possibly know what they might need. In truth, they are excellent builders and many worked in construction jobs here in the U.S. before the border was closed. Rather, we went to listen, and to hear their story. They wanted us to bring their story back and to share it with others here in the U.S. This situation (and others like it), can change only when many people in North America begin to understand this political and economic interdependence. This one situation illustrates the stark reality that everything from the clothes we wear to the many gadgets and appliances we use are very political. Our lifestyle choices and national trade policies have real consequences for others. We are crucifying others every day with our choices and policies.
What can you do? Educate yourself. Share what you learn with others. To learn more –
Click the video link below to see reality as it really is for many around the world, in order to support our North American lifestyle:
“All I need” video comparing lifestyles of typical U.S. kid and Global South kids.
World poverty ‘more widespread’ **
In this article the World Bank says there are more poor people in the world than previously thought, with one in four in poverty.
What does it mean to earn a living wage ? Notice how little is included in this calculation.
read journalist Mark Kramer’s fascinating journey to 7 of the world’s urban slums in his book, Dispossessed. If your library doesn’t have this book, change their selection. Ask that they order it for you.
After the shooting of Rep. Giffords in Tucson, AZ much has been written about the effects words have on our thinking and our actions. Although the shooting has not been linked to any particular phrases or wording, the discussion highlights what linguists and educators have known for awhile – words form how we think and understand the world, not the other way around.
Using violent language forms how we think and understand violence. It affects us over time. We live in a very violent culture and not surprisingly, we use violent language in our speech. Consider everyday acceptable language such as “target marketing,” “take a stab at it,” “bullet point” and “it’s killing me.”
The recent national health insurance debate was another example of language forms how we understand things. The media often referred to the debate as “health care reform” yet it had nothing to do with reforming health care. It had everything to do with reforming health insurance. It is a testament to the savy of the healthy insurance industry that they were able to reframe the language around this topic so effectively. They were able to instill fear regarding healthcare rather than focusing on the availability of health insurance for all. This took the spotlight off the exclusionary practices and high profits of the health insurance industry and instead created fear regarding healthcare.
Similarly, the use of non-gender inclusive language (using male language as normative for both men and women) removes any consideration of women’s experiences as different from men’s, from conversation. Not discussing it means not thinking about it. This is not merely an intellectual exercise. It plays out in real life to the detriment of women’s health, for example, when drugs are tested only on men (again considered as the “norm”) and not on women.
Finally, exclusive use of male language for God limits our understanding of God – and by extension it limits our understanding of ourselves since we are made in God’s image. God is neither male nor female. God encompasses qualties of both genders and more. To understand God’s characteristics as exclusively male because we speak about God as only male limits, for us, how we see God’s activity in our lives. While the metaphor of a “father” is useful sometimes, it doesn’t work all the time. Multiplying our metaphors for God will broaden what we envision that God can do – and therefore what we imagine that we can do.
Part of good mental health is learning to use good speech habits. We can learn to eliminate violent language and metaphors from our everyday speech. We can learn to use gender inclusive language. We can learn to look critically at metaphors and definitions used by the media and corporations and ask, “Who benefits, and who doesn’t benefit, from using this metaphor or definition?”
My grocery store is often Kowalski’s. I shop there because they carry Peace Coffee which is always Fair Trade coffee – meaning workers receive a living wage. They also carry local produce that isn’t shipped great distances and supports local farmers.
