4 February 2015 03:33:49 GMT
Ok, so this is my first piece of writing that I’m going to share with the world for free because ‘It Matters’ and it’s vital to me. Excuse the rant but frankly, it’s about ‘Time’.
I bought a pair of Nike trainers the other day:
http://www.sportsdirect.com/nike-air-max-skyline-mens-trainers-121346?colcode=12134646
Their original retail price was £91.99 and it suddenly dawned on me to do some research. I came across this:
http://youtu.be/M5uYCWVfuPQ
It broke my heart. Not only do I think it unjust but equally brutally unfair. Trade like this has to stop. Ok, I’ve already lost the majority of readers because this is negative press. We’re all aware of the atrocities going on in the world and merely feel unable to do anything about them. But I’m keeping it simple, visual and understandable. I’m an idealist, I realise that but seriously, this can’t go on.
I’m totally aware of sponsorship deals, promotion of brands, business but surely in this day and age, with our collective intelligence and human decency, is it not possible to make our trade a little fairer? I remember watching Coldplay on stage:
http://youtu.be/-2SxnqtS1ZU
My aim is not to bring you down, to turn your cheek the other way but actually to face the reality and know that unanimously we can make a difference. I had a vision about global debt and wondered if one global currency could work? Like I said, I am an idealist and I did think forward as well as back. Before currency/money, there was trade. I’ll trade you some cloth for some vegetables. I’ll trade you a goat for a pale of water. I am talking about ancient B.C. times but it worked, it can work. One Global Currency could work. It could wipe out 3rd world debt. The dependency of rich nations allowing countries to become more dependent on their aid, not less, is human and governmental entrapment.
Money is an interesting concept. People seem to have this expression, ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’ but if you think about it, without trees, money wouldn’t have ever existed, come to think of it, neither would the human race. I am side tracking, going off on tangents but my point is, please watch these video clips, please think about your children and others’ and what you would truly wish their future to hold as well as your own.
The CEO of Nike when the documentary was made, Phil Knight, didn’t wish to comment or even speak to Jim Keady or the team at http://www.educatingforjustice.org whereas the staff which he employed, at the time, to make his trainers were making ‘$1.25 a day… working 15 hours a day 6-7 days a week.’ Meanwhile, back in the States, Tiger Woods had a sponsorship deal of ‘$100m just for wearing the clothes’ the equivalent of ‘more than 700,000 people’ working in the sweatshop in Indonesia for Nike at that time. I would advise listening particularly to the link above between 17:20 to 18:55. The key information and statistics are articulated well there.
I was recently advised to watch the following two documentaries created and crafted by the BBC. To understand how the bridge, of the super rich and us, was spawned. I don’t have a problem with wealth, even the super wealthy, what I do have a problem with is morals and ethics. The ‘Super Rich’ have a responsibility and as Voltaire once wrote, ‘With great power comes great responsibility’. (I’m pretty sure I also heard that line in a Spiderman movie).
http://youtu.be/t2BiuW93bos
http://youtu.be/8Xa8b9bm45M
On Monday 2nd February 2015, I came across The Times newspaper and on the front of that paper there was the title: ‘Britain isn’t ready for Charles and his activism fears Queen.’ The article starts with the following paragraph: ‘The Queen fears that Britain may not be ready for the radical new style of monarchy envisaged by her eldest son, according to a new biography of the Prince of Wales.’ Well I am ready for change, I hope you are too.
‘It is not enough to be compassionate, YOU MUST ACT’ 14th Dalai Lama