Rupertites in Calgary begs the question?

[system]

[quote=“BoNeCrAcKeR”]
I don’t make it a habit to police how a retailer conducts their business.  Bottom line…Price and quality.  If you showed me pictures of children working in a Gap clothing factory who were malnourished and treated like slaves I may change my opinion.  Until then I’ll settle for the best bang for my buck. [/quote]

For someone, like myself, who believes very strongly in true democracy - this is a little hard to say…but you (me, all of us) have more impact/authority with our decision on where to spend our money than we do with our decision on where to place our vote.

If you don’t want to think about it BoNeCrAcKeR, then don’t. But don’t complain about job losses due to factories moving to “Free Trade Zones”. Union jobs result in products that cost more money. Environmentally responsible factories result in products that cost more money.

The global ecomony DEPENDS upon each of us with any disposable income continuing to look for the ‘best bang’ for our bucks. If we stated - through action - that we were willing to spend a little more for a product that we can use with a clean conscience, that product would be made available to us.

It isn’t enough to simply not buy - we must let the companies know WHY we are not buying from them.

[system]

[quote=“BoNeCrAcKeR”]
I don’t make it a habit to police how a retailer conducts their business.  [/quote]

Lucky for us, some people do.

Child sweatshop shame threatens Gap’s ethical image

An Observer investigation into children making clothes has shocked the retail giant and may cause it to withdraw apparel ordered for Christmas

Dan McDougall  Sunday October 28, 2007

[quote=“BoNeCrAcKeR”]
If you showed me pictures of children working in a Gap clothing factory who were malnourished and treated like slaves I may change my opinion.  [/quote]

Sorry - they don’t let cameras into their factories…

Amitosh concentrates as he pulls the loops of thread through tiny plastic beads and sequins on the toddler’s blouse he is making. Dripping with sweat, his hair is thinly coated in dust. In Hindi his name means ‘happiness’. The hand-embroidered garment on which his tiny needle is working bears the distinctive logo of international fashion chain Gap. Amitosh is 10.

The hardships that blight his young life, exposed by an undercover Observer investigation in the back streets of New Delhi, reveal a tragic consequence of the West’s demand for cheap clothing. It exposes how, despite Gap’s rigorous social audit systems launched in 2004 to weed out child labour in its production processes, the system is being abused by unscrupulous subcontractors. The result is that children, in this case working in conditions close to slavery, appear to still be making some of its clothes.

snip

Gap’s own policy is that if it discovers children being used by contractors to make its clothes that contractor must remove the child from the workplace, provide it with access to schooling and a wage, and guarantee the opportunity of work on reaching a legal working age.

It is a policy to stop the abuse of children. And in Amitosh’s case it appears not to have succeeded. Sold into bonded labour by his family this summer, Amitosh works 16 hours a day hand-sewing clothing. Beside him on a wooden stool are his only belongings: a tattered comic, a penknife, a plastic comb and a torn blanket with an elephant motif.

‘I was bought from my parents’ village in [the northern state of] Bihar and taken to New Delhi by train,’ he says. ‘The men came looking for us in July. They had loudspeakers in the back of a car and told my parents that, if they sent me to work in the city, they won’t have to work in the farms. My father was paid a fee for me and I was brought down with 40 other children. The journey took 30 hours and we weren’t fed. I’ve been told I have to work off the fee the owner paid for me so I can go home, but I am working for free. I am a shaagird [a pupil]. The supervisor has told me because I am learning I don’t get paid. It has been like this for four months.’

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@Become the change

For someone, like myself, who believes very strongly in true democracy - this is a little hard to say…but you (me, all of us) have more impact/authority with our decision on where to spend our money than we do with our decision on where to place our vote.

If you don’t want to think about it BoNeCrAcKeR, then don’t. But don’t complain about job losses due to factories moving to “Free Trade Zones”. Union jobs result in products that cost more money. Environmentally responsible factories result in products that cost more money.

The global ecomony DEPENDS upon each of us with any disposable income continuing to look for the ‘best bang’ for our bucks. If we stated - through action - that we were willing to spend a little more for a product that we can use with a clean conscience, that product would be made available to us.

It isn’t enough to simply not buy - we must let the companies know WHY we are not buying from them.

Maybe you’re right and the Gap does have their clothing manufactured in sweatshops by children.  If so, that is unfortunate.  I, for one, am not going to investigate the policies of every retailer that I shop at prior to shopping there.  I also don’t beleive everything I see or read.  The internet and many written publications are filled with complete crap.  People and organizations accused of one thing or another.  I’m not saying that some of it isn’t true but like I said, I don’t believe everything I see or read.

Did you see me complaining about factories moving to free trade zones?  Those problems are for someone else to solve.  I don’t like alot of things going on in the world but I’m not going to be joining any “Save the Whales” campaigns or marching against alleged sweatshops.  Some people may have the passion to do that, I don’t. 

If and when I become more educated on the concerns that you mentioned perhaps I will be as passionate about it as you are.  In the meantime, I have a mortgage to pay, little mouths to feed and my own problems to worry about.  That may seem harsh but that is my reality.  I may not be as good of a world citizen as you are but I am a damned good provider to my family.  That is my personal number one priority.

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… and then they took away my ability to provide for my family and there was no one left to speak up …

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There will always be someone left to cut those raw logs we export or catch those fish to ship to China for packaging and processing.
And once we get rid of Castro, we won’t have to ship their bauxite to Kitimat, they can even make the beer cans in Cuba for 60c an hour. We’ll probably “save” that 5c deposit and won’t be forced to recycle!

[system]

[quote=“BoNeCrAcKeR”]
Those problems are for someone else to solve.  [/quote]

This is our biggest problem - everyone feels it is someone else’s problem. Apathy WILL destroy us.

@BoNeCrAcKeR

In the meantime, I have a mortgage to pay, little mouths to feed and my own problems to worry about.  That may seem harsh but that is my reality.  I may not be as good of a world citizen as you are but I am a damned good provider to my family.  That is my personal number one priority.

Many of us who are ‘active’ on issues that are important also have little mouths to feed and mortgages to make - I know I do. I also have to provide for a family. I also feel that it is a part of my responsibility as a parent to the next generation that I instill in my kids a sense of responsibility for my own actions.

I would never ask anyone to sacrifice time with their families to ‘campaign’. But when my daughter asks why everything is made in China, I tell her. Now she (at 12 years old) looks at labels and if there is a Canadian made option, we buy it.

We did not get into this world of global economics overnight - and we cannot get out of it that quickly.

Soggy is bang on - we need to speak up for others, when we can, to ensure that others will speak up for us.

This is called community.

[system]

@Become the change

This is our biggest problem - everyone feels it is someone else’s problem. Apathy WILL destroy us.

Many of us who are ‘active’ on issues that are important also have little mouths to feed and mortgages to make - I know I do. I also have to provide for a family. I also feel that it is a part of my responsibility as a parent to the next generation that I instill in my kids a sense of responsibility for my own actions.

I would never ask anyone to sacrifice time with their families to ‘campaign’. But when my daughter asks why everything is made in China, I tell her. Now she (at 12 years old) looks at labels and if there is a Canadian made option, we buy it.

We did not get into this world of global economics overnight - and we cannot get out of it that quickly.

Soggy is bang on - we need to speak up for others, when we can, to ensure that others will speak up for us.

This is called community.

Go get 'em tiger!!  While I’m lounging around in my lazy boy, swilling beer, wearing my cotton knit sweater and khakis that I purchased at the Gap I’ll feel better knowing that someone is out there solving the worlds problems. 

Seriously though, I do care about world issue such as this but I firmly believe that these issues will be dealt with by people who are either extremely passionate about the cause, stakeholders affected by it or those elected to office who find themselves in a position to be heard in regards to global issues such as this.

[system]

@BoNeCrAcKeR

Seriously though, I do care about world issue such as this but I firmly believe that these issues will be dealt with by people who are either extremely passionate about the cause, stakeholders affected by it or those elected to office who find themselves in a position to be heard in regards to global issues such as this.

It is a fair enough statement that bringing about change will take people with passion.  But I submit to you that we are all ‘stakeholders’.

And certainly, we ought to raise our standards on what we expect our elected governments to do in support of bringing changes to our global economy.

I believe that the bare minimum that EVERY Canadian should do is to approach the ballot with a basic understanding of each candidates’ position of something important to each of us.

Don’t apologize or defend the things you don’t do = = just do well the things that you do.

[system]

@Become the change

It is a fair enough statement that bringing about change will take people with passion.  But I submit to you that we are all ‘stakeholders’.

And certainly, we ought to raise our standards on what we expect our elected governments to do in support of bringing changes to our global economy.

I believe that the bare minimum that EVERY Canadian should do is to approach the ballot with a basic understanding of each candidates’ position of something important to each of us.

Don’t apologize or defend the things you don’t do = = just do well the things that you do.

I just gave you a karma point because I agree with what you are saying.  The are alot of bleeding hearts in the world, alot of problems and alot of bandwagons to jump on.  Where should a person put their efforts?  I entrust the people who have extreme passion for the issues to do what they can.  For many people it just adds stress.  We may be stakeholders in a broad sense but my point was directed at those closely related or involved such as industry leaders, labour and human rights leaders and politicians.