This week I have done something slightly different, it's a thought from the parasha, followed by an afterthought taking it a step further.
I have a small excerpt from an article and some commentary by me (IN RED),
and a little passage written by our shaliach with the mostest, Yahal (IN BLUE)
I have already written about buying 'no sweat' clothes: http://www.habodror.org.uk/chinuch/miketz.htm there are lots of links in that article to buy ethically made clothes.
Reading this week's parasha and some articles about it I couldn't help but be brought back to the issue of ethical consumerism.
In a world where money is so important, what we do with our money is one of the most important decisions we can use to influence the world around us.
Again we must ask a creative question: has our progressive and enlightened modern society succeeded in wiping out slavery and in its place created more decent and humane conditions? Indeed, there is no slavery per se in modern society, but no one is capable of being creative enough to ask the creative question: Are certain ancient methods perhaps superior to the modern ones? Incarcerating thieves in prison does not generally lead to their rehabilitation; rather, it gives them "advanced professional training" in this occupation. When a person comes onhard times today he surely does not sell himself into slavery. But instead he sells himself to a manpower company. There he works as hard as a slave, for wages that are negligible, under substandard working conditions, without rights, and with no hope for the present or future. Thus, it appears that modern society ushered slavery out the front door with great pomp and circumstance, but brought it back, creeping quietly through the rear door. . .
– Prof. Dov Landau, "Slavery and the Torah in the Third Millennium," www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/mishpat/lan.html
Mishpatim includes in it the 'ethical' treatment of slaves. Judaism was rebelling at the time, mandating that slaves were people too and had rights. The rules were trying to stipulate that a slave was not a commodity, but a person, albeit a substandard/subservient one. This relates very closely to 'fairtrade', trying to get a better deal for those who produce our coffee, bananas etc. I don't need to go on about the issue - you've heard it all before, I just wanted to point out that it had a precedent in the Torah.
A second (or third) thought about fair trade commodities
For more info check: www.haaretz.com;
www.fairtrade.org.uk;
www.fairtraderesource.org; www.eftatrade.org
Two well-known Canadian scholars published recently a research about the culture of buying fair trade in Canada especially and around the globe. In their book, a nation of dissenters, the authors Hith and Poter are describing the new way of anti-globalisation move: buying fair-trade.
According to the scholars, the market of fair trade commodities is getting larger, especially in Europe.
As for an example, the fair trade coffee market reached more then 10% in Europe, while only 3% in the USA.
Fair trade coffee, and other goods, is all about fighting the global capitalistic economy system. Through buying fair trade, one is supposed to support the coffee makers in the third world countries. Those coffee farmers earn very little, while the big share of the money goes directly to the big companies or the mediator. Fair trade mark is all about to change the abuse of manpower, and to try build up the lowest income communities.
But not many actually think about the whole process. The big companies are treating the fair trade only as one more brand in their wide variety. They give another choice to the customer, while not changing really the capitalistic economic system. One KG of coffee beans cost $26 to a coffee maker big company in the market. Out of that only 14 cents goes directly to the farmers. Fair trade coffee is about to change that, but the problem is that the big companies usually blend few types of coffee together, fair and regular trade ones. This means that the main share of coffee is still not fair trade.
The cost of coffee beans around the world falls dramatically. About 25 million farmers are living in poverty while trying to grow coffee beans. The very little change in the global market is actually almost not affecting those who need the money so much. And this is the sad point of the story: most of us customers are buying fair trade commodity only to feel good with ourselves. While we believe we are making a difference, the truth is we are not. But our conscience is now clean, while practically still being part of the global system.
If you really want to change, says Hith, says Poter, do not let the illusion of fair trade to get you. This is what it is all about – making the customer thinking he is fighting for the poor while acting in within the capitalistic system but not changing much. If one wants to change – it should be the origin of the whole system.
Shabbat Shalom
Benji
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