A responsible friend, neighbor, citizen of the earth
I recall a time when I was delusional enough to think that I could limit myself to purchases of food, clothes, and other goods which were being grown, processed, or made by folks who were treated with respect. To be sure, movements and organizations such as Fair Trade sometimes helped, but I soon realized that it is often impossible to trace the origin and progression of all the materials which go into one product much less thousands of them. For example, I am sitting at Panera’s typing. There are very few people here this chilly Florida morning. This gives me an even clearer view of the facility. From my chair I can see furniture, lights, ceilings, windows, walls, wall coverings, paint, drink dispensers, and the kitchen area which houses a lot of equipment. I am wearing sneakers, athletic socks, gym shorts, athletic underwear, a tank top, an athletic top, sunglasses, contacts, misfit bands, and a lanyard which carries my gym tags and key as well as my library tag. I also have my car keys, my iPhone, my briefcase, and a number of items including paper, pens, contact case, eye drops, and lip moisturizer. Since I have car keys, it is obvious that I have a car which has many parts which were made in various places in the world.
Oh yes, I am drinking coffee in a cup and I have added half and half to the coffee.
I am probably missing several items such as the concrete walks which include the rebar, the sand, and the other ingredients for the concrete sidewalk and what appears to be an asphalt parking surface.
All of the ingredients and the products involved people performing various tasks. How many of these fellow human beings are being emotionally and financially treated with love and respect? How many are earning a living wage? How many are tools for the success of a person(s) or victims of human trafficking? Noy Thrupkaew, a journalist, defines human trafficking as “the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel another person’s labor.” She reminds us in a Ted Talk entitled “Human trafficking is all around you. This is how works” that despite the common thought that human trafficking is just about the those forced to function as sex workers it is much more. She says,
“Forced prostitution accounts for 22 percent of human trafficking. Ten percent is in state-imposed forced labor, but a whopping 68 percent is for the purpose of creating the goods and delivering the services that most of us rely on every day, in sectors like agricultural work, domestic work and construction. That is food and care and shelter. And somehow, these most essential workers are also among the world's most underpaid and exploited today. Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel another person's labor. And it's found in cotton fields, and coltan mines, and even car washes in Norway and England. It's found in U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Mrs. Thrupkaew had not thought much about human trafficking prior to the day her then therapist asked who raised her for the first years of her life. She asked her mother and then the memories of the very loving person raising her came back as did the memories of this person being frequently beaten by a member of the family. She then began to think more and in a broader way about human trafficking.
I recall being a Midshipman at the U. S. Naval Academy and even then wondering how it was that several Philippine workers were assigned to each table in the dining hall thus allowing all 4,000 plus Midshipmen (this was before women were admitted) to be served a several course, freshly cooked meal at the same time. I wondered where these men (I think that they were all men) came from and how much they were paid. There were well over 1300 of these men plus those working in the kitchen and all those who insured that the ingredients were there. Although I did not spend a lot of time researching this subject, I did spend some time and could not find any articles about how these men got to Annapolis, where they lived, and how much they were paid.
Later I was at Princeton Theological Seminary. I was acutely aware that Princeton was home to many academics as well as many wealthy people. Housing for the servants was not that apparent and, yet, I was to discover that there was tenement-like housing for these servants usually well hidden from public view.
In 2014 I moved to a villa/condo in Dunedin, Florida. I did not realize until I actually moved how white and middle to upper class Dunedin is. People of color work for the lawn service which services the condo community. If I am biking to Clearwater, I go through a section which seems predominantly occupied by African-Americans and some Latinos. How was it that I did not notice this until I moved? I know that I was seduced by what was the relatively low cost of a condo. Although there are also some very expensive houses and condos, compared to what I was finding in the Pittsburgh area where I lived, they are very affordable. I “know” that although I am at the low end of middle class income wise, I really am better off than much of the world’s population.
I have no hope of living in way which allows me to completely avoid products which profit from all forms of human trafficking. I can continue to try to avoid the companies which most obviously oppress or use people unfairly. The real issue which I think we must continue to attempt to address is the ongoing addiction to power and money of those who use others humans as objects or machines. As I have previously mentioned, I define addiction as our attachment to or our attempt to find something outside of our self to prove our worth or to fill that void which says that it is not enough to be us – that we need alcohol, other drugs, sex, power, money, things to prove we are more than so that we can be enough.
Obviously, most of we humans seem to look outside of ourselves to find that next high which will make us feel better. Whatever it is does not fill the void for long. We always need more and more and more of whatever. As long as this perceived need is there we very creative humans will find ways to force, coerce, or take advantage of dire circumstances of other human beings. In the end, this only keeps us separated from each other thus causing us to feel more of a void thus feeding the belief that we need more of whatever thus leading us more alone thus …. One gets the idea of this vicious cycle.
It is going to take all of us working together to break this cycle. Can we do it one person – starting with ourselves – at a time? Certainly we can. All that creative energy which we put into our abusive, addictive behavior can work miracles.
Written January 24, 2016
I recall a time when I was delusional enough to think that I could limit myself to purchases of food, clothes, and other goods which were being grown, processed, or made by folks who were treated with respect. To be sure, movements and organizations such as Fair Trade sometimes helped, but I soon realized that it is often impossible to trace the origin and progression of all the materials which go into one product much less thousands of them. For example, I am sitting at Panera’s typing. There are very few people here this chilly Florida morning. This gives me an even clearer view of the facility. From my chair I can see furniture, lights, ceilings, windows, walls, wall coverings, paint, drink dispensers, and the kitchen area which houses a lot of equipment. I am wearing sneakers, athletic socks, gym shorts, athletic underwear, a tank top, an athletic top, sunglasses, contacts, misfit bands, and a lanyard which carries my gym tags and key as well as my library tag. I also have my car keys, my iPhone, my briefcase, and a number of items including paper, pens, contact case, eye drops, and lip moisturizer. Since I have car keys, it is obvious that I have a car which has many parts which were made in various places in the world.
Oh yes, I am drinking coffee in a cup and I have added half and half to the coffee.
I am probably missing several items such as the concrete walks which include the rebar, the sand, and the other ingredients for the concrete sidewalk and what appears to be an asphalt parking surface.
All of the ingredients and the products involved people performing various tasks. How many of these fellow human beings are being emotionally and financially treated with love and respect? How many are earning a living wage? How many are tools for the success of a person(s) or victims of human trafficking? Noy Thrupkaew, a journalist, defines human trafficking as “the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel another person’s labor.” She reminds us in a Ted Talk entitled “Human trafficking is all around you. This is how works” that despite the common thought that human trafficking is just about the those forced to function as sex workers it is much more. She says,
“Forced prostitution accounts for 22 percent of human trafficking. Ten percent is in state-imposed forced labor, but a whopping 68 percent is for the purpose of creating the goods and delivering the services that most of us rely on every day, in sectors like agricultural work, domestic work and construction. That is food and care and shelter. And somehow, these most essential workers are also among the world's most underpaid and exploited today. Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel another person's labor. And it's found in cotton fields, and coltan mines, and even car washes in Norway and England. It's found in U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Mrs. Thrupkaew had not thought much about human trafficking prior to the day her then therapist asked who raised her for the first years of her life. She asked her mother and then the memories of the very loving person raising her came back as did the memories of this person being frequently beaten by a member of the family. She then began to think more and in a broader way about human trafficking.
I recall being a Midshipman at the U. S. Naval Academy and even then wondering how it was that several Philippine workers were assigned to each table in the dining hall thus allowing all 4,000 plus Midshipmen (this was before women were admitted) to be served a several course, freshly cooked meal at the same time. I wondered where these men (I think that they were all men) came from and how much they were paid. There were well over 1300 of these men plus those working in the kitchen and all those who insured that the ingredients were there. Although I did not spend a lot of time researching this subject, I did spend some time and could not find any articles about how these men got to Annapolis, where they lived, and how much they were paid.
Later I was at Princeton Theological Seminary. I was acutely aware that Princeton was home to many academics as well as many wealthy people. Housing for the servants was not that apparent and, yet, I was to discover that there was tenement-like housing for these servants usually well hidden from public view.
In 2014 I moved to a villa/condo in Dunedin, Florida. I did not realize until I actually moved how white and middle to upper class Dunedin is. People of color work for the lawn service which services the condo community. If I am biking to Clearwater, I go through a section which seems predominantly occupied by African-Americans and some Latinos. How was it that I did not notice this until I moved? I know that I was seduced by what was the relatively low cost of a condo. Although there are also some very expensive houses and condos, compared to what I was finding in the Pittsburgh area where I lived, they are very affordable. I “know” that although I am at the low end of middle class income wise, I really am better off than much of the world’s population.
I have no hope of living in way which allows me to completely avoid products which profit from all forms of human trafficking. I can continue to try to avoid the companies which most obviously oppress or use people unfairly. The real issue which I think we must continue to attempt to address is the ongoing addiction to power and money of those who use others humans as objects or machines. As I have previously mentioned, I define addiction as our attachment to or our attempt to find something outside of our self to prove our worth or to fill that void which says that it is not enough to be us – that we need alcohol, other drugs, sex, power, money, things to prove we are more than so that we can be enough.
Obviously, most of we humans seem to look outside of ourselves to find that next high which will make us feel better. Whatever it is does not fill the void for long. We always need more and more and more of whatever. As long as this perceived need is there we very creative humans will find ways to force, coerce, or take advantage of dire circumstances of other human beings. In the end, this only keeps us separated from each other thus causing us to feel more of a void thus feeding the belief that we need more of whatever thus leading us more alone thus …. One gets the idea of this vicious cycle.
It is going to take all of us working together to break this cycle. Can we do it one person – starting with ourselves – at a time? Certainly we can. All that creative energy which we put into our abusive, addictive behavior can work miracles.
Written January 24, 2016
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