My effect on international relations

Let’s begin with a light anecdote to get the ball rolling. During the summer back home, I work at my local zoo’s gift shop/cafe, stocking the store from the warehouse and occasionally  manning one of Aramark’s outflung stands inside the park selling souvenirs. It was a typical day in August, meaning it was hot and humid and ungodly bright, and the 400 pound tortoises behind me were doing what 400 pound tortoises do best, which is make lots of little 2 oz. tortoises very loudly. As I stood there, bored, hawking my wares, two small children of indeterminate sex and their father (wearing a cowboy hat, it should be noted) came into view. “Daddy, Daddy, can we buy something?” one of the two children cried, hope evident in his tone.

That child’s father looked his son/daughter in the eye and said, very calmly, without changing his expression: “No dear. Everything we buy helps to prolong the agony of the Malaysian slave children who have to make it all.”

Many would call me poker-faced, but it took all I had to remain upright, let alone to keep a straight face. When he came nearer, I extended my hand and shook his, glad to be accorded the privilege of meeting a parent so creatively able to tell their son/daughter “No” and succeed with no protests on the part of the little one.

We went out separate ways, but that incident now makes me think: the two of us knew he wasn’t really serious about what he said, but what if he was still right? That’s where I come into things. I am, at this present moment, wearing an extremely comfortable shirt of red cotton, long john style, made in Lesotho for Gap, if the label is assumed to be correct. It’s not Malaysia, but the principle is the same- my shirt came from a small, fairly poor nation, with dubious child work laws. By accepting this gift, I’m helping to pay the wages of someone living in a small country who relies a lot on the export of clothing, according to wikipedia. To quote: “Lesotho has taken advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) to become the largest exporter of garments to the US from sub-Saharan Africa. Exports totaled over $320 million in 2002. Employment reached over 50,000, marking the first time that manufacturing sector workers outnumbered government employees.”

It’s a long way from there to here, but if people like me didn’t buy clothes like the shirt I’m wearing, someone over there could potentially not have a job to feed themself or their family with. By choosing to buy something- nearly anything, these days- I am directly responsible for stimulating the economy of a minimum of two different countries. It’s a small power, but it’s power nonetheless. When millions like me do the same, official foreign policy reflects that. One snowflake starts the avalanche, even if you can’t tell which one it was. Maybe it was me.

And as a P.S., “Significant levels of child labour exist in Lesotho, and the country is in the process of formulating an Action Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (APEC), which is likely to be adopted in the period 2006-2007 (see Child labour in Lesotho).”

- John