Aaah, Valentine's Day...love, red roses, chocolate, diamonds. And racism, death, and destruction. Damn! So I knew about blood diamonds and now I find out that roses for Valentines Day come from Kenya, at least in Europe. So red rose harvesters in Kenya desperately depend on sales from Feb 14 for their livelihood. But then how many of those fields of flowers might belong to those responsible for stirring up violence in Kenya? Is it better to buy or not buy? And if I do get roses do I bury my nose and inhale their fragrance? Will I smell their scent or will I get a whiff of desperation and death?
Now I live in Switzerland, land of chocolate right? And apart from the fact that they are oh-so delicious even even if they go straight to my hips (who am I kidding? they go all over me) but I digress. Apparently the beans are harvested by kids in South America who work hard working when they should be in school.
I.Give.Up
The world is one fucked up, sad place where childhoods are snatched away and symbols of love and romance for some come up at the expense of shattered dreams and death for those who labor to make those symbols real.
Damn it!
So bottoms up and Happy Valentine's Day All...in advance. Make someone you love feel loved. Yes, that is possible without diamonds, roses...and yes, even without chocolate though that's the hardest one of all.
7 comments:
i know, right? the old days when none of us knew how evil we were being :( buying diamonds from conflict zones, roses from kenya, eating apples grown in apartheid s.africa, driving cars that ran on saudi fuel, drinking coffee harvested by children... sigh. soon, we'll all be living in tents and eating berries we picked ourselves.
Yeeeach: life is now a total guilt trip(:
I guess I should up for tent making class then. Depressing! Aah for those old days of ignorance and not caring.
And yes, Dipali, totally :-(
Ya, but damn it made for a good movie. On the upside, the monopoly otherwise known as Nestle only squeezes a few farmers while price gouging them :)
Hey neighbor! Yes, it was a good movie...but damn it was depressing. Made me want to crawl under a blanket and cry to myself :-)
I am still not convinced that I should give up chocolate. You'll have to guilt trip me better than that, Debbie Downer!
Okay, you just made my dieting easier. No more chocos
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