Checking it Twice
by Fred ClarkAt Christmas time the whole world is counting on you. Retailers account for as much as 40 percent of their profits during the holiday season. You can't let them down. You've got to get out there and spend, spend, spend.
And it's not just America's economy that's depending on you. When economists tell us the world is mired in a global recession, the only hope for revitalizing the global economy is if America acts as the "importer of last resort." At Christmas it's up to us, the American consumers, to save the world by buying anything anywhere that anybody is selling.
Mothers used to tell their children not to waste food because people were starving in Asia. Now economists tell us that people will starve in Asia unless we order seconds. It doesn't matter if we waste our food, as long as we keep buying more.
For those who follow this reasoning, nothing is more frightening than a "simple, old-fashioned Christmas." The idea of, say, giving hand-made gifts, or of cutting back on shopping to spend more time with loved ones, fills these economic theorists with horror. Who then would fuel the global economy? Who then would be the importer of last resort?
When Bill McKibben promotes scaling back to a "$100 Christmas" he is, to these economists, not only a threat to the American way of life, but a threat to prosperity and development worldwide. And what would happen if too many American Christians read "Whose Birthday Is It Anyway?", the annual Christmas resource from Alternatives for Simple Living (1-800-821-6153)? That sort of thing can't be good for the unquestioning materialism needed in the importer of last resort.
Okay, so picking on economic pundits, like dynamiting fish, is too easy to be sporting. And after all, their theory is based on an undeniable nugget of truth: our purchases often do help to provide jobs and a livelihood for people all over the world.
But the economic growth our pundit friends long for does not necessarily result in jobs or livelihood.
It can, just as easily, result in the exploitation of the desperately poor and of God's good creation. If we have indeed become the global economy's importer of last resort, then this buyer's market makes it even easier for us to take advantage of the poor and the powerless. Let a thousand sweatshops bloom!
We can work to make sure that our shopping helps the poor instead of exploiting them. One way to do this is by doing some of our shopping with "fair trade" dealers. Fair trade organizations cut out the middle men, arranging trade structures that ensure workers receive a larger, more just, share of the fruits of their labor. Fair trade groups have grown in recent years. More organizations are now empowering more workers and offering an increasing variety of quality fair-trade products for North American consumers.
Most fair trade groups operate through low-overhead catalogs but some, such as the Mennonite-related Ten Thousand Villages, also operate retail stores in many cities. The following are just a few of the many excellent fair-trade groups.
• Ten Thousand Villages (formerly SELFHELP Crafts) provides North American markets for Third World artisans. To find the store nearest you, check the yellow pages, write to TTV, P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500; or visit their website: www.villages.ca.
• Serrv International is a program of the Church of the Brethren that features crafts from more than 20 countries. Write: 500 Main St., Rt. 31, New Windsor, MD 21776-0365; web: www.serrv.org.
• Each year, Co-op America produces its National Green Pages, a directory of thousands of products and services from "green" businesses, including fair trade groups. The directory is available for $6 from Co-op America, 1612 K St., NW, #600 Washington, DC 20006; you can find the online version at www.greenpages.org.
• The Fair Trade Federation is an association of more than 100 groups. Their excellent website includes a directory of retailers and wholesalers to help you find the fair trader nearest you: www.fairtradefederation.com.
Adapted from an article that first appeared in the November/December 1998 issue of PRISM in the Shop & Save column. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
Print
Email
1 Comment
To post a comment, please login or register