Researching further into the matter, I
found out that there are other big corporations, carrying "well-loved" brands of common household
items, that are guilty of committing and/or indirectly propagating (by
simply not doing anything) one form of injustice or the other. The act ranges from “mere” unjust labor
practices to destroying outright entire village’s means of living by depleting
their water source or hampering agricultural activities and practices.
I sit here and I realized I would never
look at a cup of coffee the same way again.
Or, look at a rack of clothes without questioning whether these were
made by children, a little older than my son, under the most hazardous
conditions.
Being vegetarians, my husband and I (most
specially me) are particular about spending our money on meat. Every now and then we make allowances for
cousins and family members (but it rarely ever happens) and put out a meat dish
on celebrations we hold at home or host somewhere. I am adamant about putting out money (hard
and honestly-earned) that would inadvertently support the entire “process”
needed in order to put meat on the table.
Learning about all these
injustices practiced by big corporations out there for profit’s sake is making
me look at things at a much bigger perspective.
Oh, I’ve learned about sweatshops since I
was a kid and even then I was loathed about these practices. But I wasn’t really as conscious about it as
I am now. Before, I’m only too happy to
receive imported goods from my well-meaning parents, relatives and
friends. I don’t remember questioning at
all whether those where sourced out from sweatshops somewhere.
Now, the question of where I put my money
in is not as simple as it was before. If
the whole idea of unjust slaughter practices has defined my choices in the
past, how much more the thought of all these things?
I’m thinking now that it really pays to be
a lot more aware of the things going on around us. Modern life has dumped on us a whole “busy”
lifestyle that we go through our days rushing from one thing to another. We are too consumed by ticking off items from
a long-list of “to-do’s” and “urgent’s” that we resort to “shortcuts” and
anything “instant” to make our days a lot more manageable.
There is also hardly any time left for
questioning things. There hardly is any
time for that. Keeping track of friends’
status messages on facebook is time-consuming enough as it is (sticking my tongue
out to myself). There is hardly any time
left sitting idly and thinking about whether the factories where my favorite
soda is made have employees that were tortured as a form of intimidation just to prevent
them from putting up unions.
Informed choice. I am not perfect and perfection is not
something I devote myself and time to. I
am serious about the unfolding of my own truth however, and that of helping my
loved ones and those closest to me unfold theirs as well. I cannot guarantee that I would always make
the right choices or that I would not let my own drama get the better of
me. But, knowing things, becoming more
aware of things is a responsibility I could very well embrace just so I could “gift”
myself the ability to make informed choices.
On that note, I think I would have to sit
down with my son again and “inform” him of these things. Definitely I wouldn’t coerce him into making “big”
decisions, far beyond his six-year old mind could comprehend. But, I would tell him stories about how
certain decisions and choices are made and why Nanay is preferring this
particular brand over the other. I’m
afraid we would have to do a major “overhaul” of what goes into our cupboard at
home and that would have to be explained.
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