Our responsiblity and role in the current ecomomic turmoil
self-inflicted? maybe so.
Self-inflicted implies that I may have played a direct role in the current economic turmoil. I have not had the chance to set up shop to supply a demand in the service industry other than my small world of hand-to-mouth activities. I have been able to participate as a consumer and through the years I have consciously moved slowly, carefully considering wants versus needs. For example, I want the new digital camera system and it’s excellent new line of lenses- I need a back up hard drive for the files my current camera has already created.
Lately in thinking a bit more about this basic idea of wants versus needs, I have re-considered my eating habits. Do I need to eat a steak? What is the real cost behind the dollar value to the food I want to consume? Where are the cows coming from? In what conditions do they live? What can the people near the cow farms afford to eat?
This idea was probably born after watching a documentary made in Africa directed by Hubert Sauper. The film is appropriately called “Darwin’s Nightmare” and introduces a microcosm to the capitalist trend of consumption. Darwin’s Nightmare sheds light on a delicacy fish, the Nile perch which thrives in Tanzania’s Lake Victoria, the largest tropical lake in the world. The fish was dropped into the lake in the 1950’s in order to farm the fish and export lavish fillets into European markets. Through the years the perch fed on the native fish diminishing the food supply of the local communities of fishers.
You can begin to see how the story unfolds; many were left with little food and had to resort to feed off the perch carcasses thrown away by the packing company, the film has a scene where women and children dig around maggot infested fish bones for food.
So the situation here is this- while some nice family sits over a beautiful, healthy fillet, the local community where that fish comes from feels a direct impact- poverty and starvation.
So back to my thoughts, what are the needs I have and what are the wants?
Who are the communities involved, how are they negatively affected by my buying power.
So how can I take these thoughts into action? Baby steps. I try to support the independent farmer as much as I can by going to the farmers markets. Even though it costs more, I support organic farms. I love the fact the my eggs come from chicken that walked even if it went nowhere, nonetheless defined “free-range.”
I feel that my buying power is what makes me a participant in the economy.
I also encountered a very similar reaction from a low-income local while working my beat in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Martin D. said “We didn’t own nothing before, we’re not gonna own nothing now.”
But responsibility lies on all of us who live in capitalistic societies sitting back while others decide for us. I hate to admit this, but perhaps this is exactly what we need to wake up and consider our roles and errors in living beyond our means. What we can’t afford is elected leaders who make bad decisions.
This entry is in response to the blog posted by Mary Stachyra on Spetmeber 25, 2008
http://blogs.journalism.cuny.edu/interactivefundamentals/2008/09/25/our-economic-crisis-a-self-inflicted-wound/