Serious reservations about the do-gooders that inhabit my world. So often these people who no doubt mean well, have never really suffered, don't know what poverty is, never experienced hunger, nor countries where parents will sell their child into slavery for food.
They tend to congregate around the inner-city, pay more for green energy and love exerting their version of social justice on any issue that grabs their fancy.
Let's take Gunns, a forestry company in Tassie, founded in 1875 and employing over 1,200 people. Anti-logging and Green pressure resulted in the appointment of an administrator this week. What about the 1,200 now unemployed?
Another case is Sherrin footballs who use Indian child labour to hand stitch footballs for 12 cents per hour. Sherrin stopped outsourcing work to these families. Unfortunately, this was their only source of income. Is prostitution a better alternative?
There's no easy answer, saving the environment is a worthwhile objective, eradicating child labour, the right thing to do, but those affected never have a say.
PS... a must read this article in the Daily Mail.
PS... a must read this article in the Daily Mail.
5 comments:
Very true. And sad.
Yes it is kind of a tough one isn't it? And I do not really have any answers. Sometimes do gooders are doing these things for their own ego strokes and not really on behalf of the people affected. You cannot take away a persons livelihood and not replace it with something else. They are caring too much about the issue and not people.
It's a problem of caring for humanity, but not for the humans. they love to help poor folk in other countries, but not their neighbor down the street.
Jo Dee: You're right. It is sad, there is so much poverty and at times, we despair that there is so little we can do.
Lilly:It's great to have ideals but sometimes it just doesn't work. Different standards, and forcing ours may have unintended consequences.
Jeni Hi Jeni.There's an acronym we use down under - NIMBY. (Not in my backyard). A lot easier to get involved and when one can walk away at 5pm.
We use NIMBY too...
Have you ever seen the show "Dark Matters : Twisted but True" ? It airs on the Science Channel here, actually hosted by one of my favorite Aussies (John Noble). Just watched a really interesting episode about George Price. He was a scientist who came up with a mathematical formula to describe altruism that posits that altrusim is actually an evolutionary survival instinct. Price eventually went completely mad...well, I won't tell you the rest, but definitely catch the show if you ever get a chance.
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