What Are We Prepared to Give Up in the Name of Global Justice?
By Geoff Cooper, Auckland
We are often quick to assume that Global Injustice is a problem that is in no way connected to us and our lifestyles. “Someone else is to blame – it’s not our problem”. However, global injustice is overwhelmingly evident in our very own country. The fact that we measure the well-being of our country by the success of our economy tells me that our society has bought into this dubious “logic”. This is the same logic that is at the heart of the disparity between the Minority and Majority worlds (let us not be so arrogant as to call them the “Developing” or “Third World”; when it is our society which is anything but “developed” in terms of our ability to progress towards a sane world). This logic is working in our own communities. While profit is the main incentive for our businesses, they will be compelled to trade the environment, or social justice to obtain their living. Dubious organisations operating in NZ under this banner may include the likes of Nike, Subway, BP etc.
Why does Global Injustice exist?
We must now try and understand the question: why do these organisations adopt a neoliberal economic view? The answer becomes very simple: the outcomes of such a system are favourable to us, the Minority world. Africa is richer in minerals and resources than any other continent in the world, yet its population remains impoverished beyond comprehension. This is because the Western world (ourselves included) has been able to exploit them in a system which sends their resources back to us. The Minority world can simply not sustain its glamorous lifestyle without acquiring resources from the Majority world Have you ever really wondered where your coffee or sugar comes from? Or how about those sports shoes and designer label clothes? There is a good chance your coffee has been delivered to you under shady trade rules which disadvantage the nations who produce that coffee (unless it is fair trade coffee which you can buy from TradeAid shops). While designer labels are almost exclusively produced in Asia where working conditions range from average to absolutely appalling.
Western Lifestyles are Complicit in Global Injustice
So we must be prepared to look at our society, and our lives, to see the bitter truth that it is our comfortable western lifestyles which are at the centre of the problem. Are we as a society prepared to give up more than just the traditional $20 as the poverty bucket is thrown around outside our local supermarket? Are we prepared to accept that it is our glamour and our luxury that is a by-product of the very problems that we aim to eliminate? This is not a request to separate ourselves from the lifestyles that we may currently live, but rather to suggest that it is our responsibility to understand the connections between our lifestyles and the problems we are all claim to be so passionate about eliminating.
Advertising and Branding – Hiding the Injustice
For this global system to work, corporations spend millions of dollars to protect us from the truth of these connections between production and consumption. To illustrate this, take a pair of shoes that were made by employing underage workers, to work in terrible conditions, and get paid next to nothing. Why would anybody buy shoes that represent exploitation? But, for example, embroider a Nike swish on the side of the shoe, and suddenly these connections become forgotten or concealed.
It is time we stand back and look at these global problems from a different perspective, with ourselves at the centre rather than on the side. It soon becomes an obligation to act rather than an act of goodwill. As Thomas Jefferson summed up, “those that have the privilege of seeing a problem have the responsibility to act”. But just what are we willing to give up?
Learn more:
Fair trade in New Zealand and Australia
Trade Aid
Sweatshops
Corporation Watch article on sweatshops
A World Connected article on sweatshops
Child labour
Human Rights Watch
Take Action!
Want to find out more about our western consumption based lifestyles? Take the ecological footprint test, and find out how many planets it would take to sustain you (if everyone consumed as much as you).
The ecological footprint of Nations – where does NZ come in the ranking?
Fantastic new initiative by World Vision to get involved in social justice issues
Photography:
Supermarket by Eva Lawrence
Girl collects Fruit courtesy of Save the Children Norway ‘03, used with the permission of Save the Children New Zealand
