Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Day 258: We Can't Boycott the System - We are the System






We have created a world where we have finally Pushed ourselves against a wall, well done on us.

Today I had this realization that there is NOTHING we can do to stop this world, but Change It.
We write about Inequality and the System not working, the Banks who are greedy grabbers holding the interest life line of many people everywhere in the world, evicting them from their homes, driving whole families into poverty, closing down businesses or about the Corporate leeches who are sucking the blood off everyone and we come up with apparently clever ideas to 'fight' the system that are never considering the absolute unsolvable interconnectedness of all things.

So, however good we are at spotting the source of our system problems, we can't attack it, wrestle it to the floor, kill it, not even boycott will work which would seem the most peaceful solution, because wherever we withdraw our support, something dies, people lose jobs, homes, their ability to support themselves.

Today I saw a shop selling shoes for 10 euro, shoes and boots -for 10 euro, some labels said made in India, that means they have even traveled, so to calculate their 'value' you'll have to deduct the profit of the Italian seller, their operation costs, the wage for the people working in the shop, the rent, electricity, cleaning lady, repairs etc, then we move onto the product costs, there you have transport costs, import taxes costs, packaging costs, we could safely say that those shoes were paid within 2 Euro at the factory -unless they were stolen , which would open another problem for those they were stolen from as loss of capital, loss of revenue etc-, 2 euro at the Indian factory means that the worker can't get more than 1 euro per day, that would be a handsome pay based on the cost/worth of the shoes, and would come up to about 30 USD per month if they pay overtime at the factory and have them work 29 days a month, like they do in China.

Now, imagine that since we see the abuse we decide to boycott this shop, we'll be the righteous ones, the boycotters of the one point of a Chain of Abuse. Now, let's look at the consequences of the added up action of boycotting purchases: the lady who was selling shoes in the shop, Romanian or Albanian she was, would lose her job, the staff is always the first that gets cut out because they are the easiest cost to cut, the shop would strive to stay open and ultimately close like it's happening to many small businesses in Italy -1600 a day for the record at June 2012-, they would no longer be a buyer for the Indian factory who would have to lay off staff that would go from their meagre 30 USD salary/month to starving. 
If they have a family they can't let their family starve, or should they so as to not upset the ones among us who actually do have food and a home and every comfort? Ultimately they will resort to crime, crime is NOT a choice, it's the choice for the ones who have No Choice.

Let's take another example Apple and Foxconn, we know Foxconn had a surge of suicides at one of their plants and ended up installing suicide prevention nets. We in the western world from our remote control as our keyboards were the ones asking to better the conditions of the workers in China, we did this because we wanted to take action from our comfortable homes so we could score another well spent day into addressing the problems of the system. We raised virtual signatures for a virtual petition -another utter mind f**k-, and due to popular demand -we like to believe, MY demand to be precise- Apple was forced to renegotiate the terms of the supply agreement with Foxconn.
The most logical way would have been for Apple to agree to pay MORE for the products AND ask for management changes to gruesome and inhumane labour conditions at the other end of the production wire. But they would not offer more money, meaning quantifiable more money, they instead used their purchase leverage to push the change, threatening to change supplier; with revenues of $40bn annually making everything from iPads to desktop computers and televisions, there should have been plenty of space for Foxconn to reduce the Profit at the top and improve the working conditions at the bottom, please see this link to Real-ize WHAT are the working conditions in China.
Foxconn, forced to take action against its will, moved to "dramatically" increase the workers pay, this happened in 2010, the wages were doubled in a very short time but the suicides didn't stop, proving that Money can't buy Life, a lessons we have to learn from the Poor and Destitutes of Society.  
Then came the suicide prevention scheme one of the cheap solutions born out of one such a situation: Apple said "we no longer want to hear about suicides at the factory" - "Okey-Dokey"- thought the Chinese, 'honestly' there was no more room for improving the workers conditions and keeping the hands of the top layers firmly on the loot at the same time, so they came up with the plan to catch the attempting offenders, as those looking forward to jump to their death {that speaks volume about the alternative they lived..}, into mid air- THIS is how they will surely prevent suicides, they'll stop them in their attempted foolish act and then 're-form' them into model workers, ain't that clever? And all without costing more than a few rolls of nets, this is Cost Control at its best.

The point I am trying to make is that there is NO solution to this system because the system is squeezed in between 2 profit motives, not just one, and it's always going to be the ones at the lowest places of the pecking order who are going to pay, so when we stand for boycotting anything, we should stop and see how whatever we do has in fact consequences that will be paid by someone else, and that if we do want to change this system and stop the atrocious lives some are living without choice, we have to implement an overall system change, we must become the nets that catch All those that would otherwise be falling to their death or into a life of misery, and until then we can't stop participating in the system, which in a very distorted way is Great, because NO ONE can ever claim to be an innocent bystander, not even through ignorance, shoes costing 10 euros can only be the result of a crime, either one against Life or against the Law, there is no other way to manufacture shoes and boots that are that dirt cheap, not even if the cows would cut and sew their own skin while they were still alive.

Boycotting the system at this stage is an act of cowardice and irresponsibility, we have to see the System as Us and all the points in the system as us and as we move away from our pointless greedy consumption and shift some of our revenues into supporting One Worthy Cause, and that is Change for All to establish Equality and Oneness on Earth, we have to support the system at the same time, we created it, it's our Brain (Damaged) Child, it needs reforming into something that considers the Life of All Living Beings as Equally Worthy and Valuable, it is because we have not looked after the System as Ourselves that it has gotten out of hand to this point of Absolute Unimaginable Abuse, we have to get back into the driving seat and not turn our back on our Creation, no matter which judgement or opinions we have taken on board that further separate us from each other on what's right and what's wrong. In fact it is despite the opinions and ideas that separate each other that we have to stand as One for What is best for All. This is how we'll measure if we are worthy of the Breath as Life we all Equally have or if we rather embrace our individual Pettiness and Petty Causes to perpetuate our Egos as Warriors of Light, Greenpeacers, Whale Protectors, Gay Marriage spokespeople, Vegan, Christian, Buddhist, Manchester United Fans, Anti-this, Pro-that, while the problems keep piling up, just because we can't let all that crap go already and unite in One Vision, where All Life is given Only the Best of everything, from education to healthcare, to nutrition, to shelter, clothing as we stand to share Equally this Planet and everything it provides for the Good of All.

If you understand what I am saying in any way, or if you are starting to see the magnitude of the problem we face, consider stopping your participation in the irrelevant fringe movements that are causing more harm than good, some people have real good intentions, if you are one of these -inform yourself on how we can design a system that works for all and once we have it in place, we can pull the rug under the feet of the old one and watch it crumble but we can't do it before we move into place into our own individual and collective positions of responsibility.

Life is suffering Big Time and it doesn't have to be this way, we are the system as the sum of all its parts, the only things that needs to change is the bricks that hold the system in place and we'll have the World we say we want, a world where we return to Life it's Capital Value and everyone as Life will be Equally supported from Birth to Death. Join us @#EqualMoney. Life is waiting.



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