Moving

After pretty much living in two cities for nine months, I've decided to move back to LA. I'm not sure where I'll eventually end up living in LA, and what exactly what I'll be doing but it'll be nice to get more involved in church and building community. I've slowly been getting more involved, but it just doesn't seem like enough. When I get back in July I'm going to be more proactive about finding/creating ministries to serve in.

It's crazy to be moving in like 2 weeks. In the midst of support raising for Nigeria, getting shots and taking pills, I also have to pack up everything and move. Plus I have to finish one class online. I've had so much random free time the last couple of months but I think that is coming to an end. I really hate moving, because I'm disorganized, but I'm really excited about being back in LA, and getting ready for Nigeria. I'm also looking forward to spending less money on gas.

I remember when Superior first opened in our neighborhood, about 5 years ago. My mom and various family members loved shopping there because it was way cheaper than Ralph's. I hated shopping there because it was dirty and smelly, the fruit was rotten and low quality, the lines were long and so on. I mean the difference in the stores was huge even though they were literally across the street. I started calling it "Inferior", and pretty much refused to go there because the conditions seemed oppressive. One day while walking by, I noticed that the workers were urging customers to boycott the store. Apparently working ocnditions were bad, and they weren't allowed to join the union. I thought, nobody is forcing you to work there, why are you complaining to me? I didn't personally like Superior, but I thought that it was nice that it provided jobs for hundreds of people, and thru competition it improved prices and service at the national chain across the street. Didn't really think about it anymore. Then a few years later I remember this big hulabaloo about Walmart. Different cities were organizing to oppose Walmarts opening in their area. They claimed it destroyed jobs and put historic stores out of business. I was still very ambivalent. It was especially fascinating because the city of Inglewood sucessfully prevented Walmart from opening in their city. But around the same time, a neighboring community in Los Angeles, led a campaign to bring Walmart to one of their shopping malls. It was bizarre and I had no idea what to think, so I decided, that it really didn't make a difference. But I kept thinking, why do so many people hate Walmart so much?

Up to last year, I considered Bill Gates a hero. It seemed so wonderful that the richest man in the world was so philantrophic. But as I kept singing his praises I noticed that many people disagreed, and it was so perplexing to me. I dismissed them as 'haters' and thought nothing more about it. Then a few months ago a newspaper did a series on the Gates Foundation and made the allegation that many times the investment fund gave money to business and projects which almost negated the work the foundation was doing. Many times they would be spending all this money to address oone health concern, like malaria, but the company in that area would be releasing pollutants that caused severe respiratory problems. So the incidence of malaria is going down in this one town, but the kids can barely breathe, and the parents are dying of cancer in their 40s- which is highly unusual for that country. And then earlier this year the same newspaper did an article claiming that one of Warren Buffet's investments PetroChina (or its subsidaries) is the main funder of the Sundaese government. At the same time the Foundation is trying to put an end to the conflict in the Darfur. In the case of the Gates Foundation, when this stuff came to light, they claimed they were going to reevaluate their investments and make sure it didn't conflict with their humanitarian work. When they talked to Warren Buffett he said something like, it's impossible to regulate the various interests that subsidiaries of a business are involved in. huh?

And now we've been studying how God is opposed to systemic injustice so a picture is starting to form in my mind. It's hard to explain it, but now I realize that some businesses are very unethical in their treatment of employees, in the way they acquire their products, in how they treat their competitors. I may not know how to fight it on a national level or in court but I can definitely avoid shopping there. I guess part of why it's so hard to understand is because I'm living in a very individualistic society. I'm accustomed to thinking if I didn't directly do it, I'm not responsible. But I know that's not true on a spiritual level, and now I'm starting to see it in other areas of life.

My final story about perplexing businesses. Starbucks and some Ethopian coffee farmers have been in a dispute about the price of coffee. I guess farmers earn approximately $2.25(that's the high price, usually it's more like $0.67) for each kilo of coffee they sell. Starbucks makes about $3/cup of coffee(i guess the frappucino stuff), and a kilo makes about 80 cups of coffee. Of course there are many steps between the farmer and Starbucks but it makes it all the more interesting that Starbucks and Ethiopia were fighting so long over the cost of coffee. It really makes me want to open a coffee shop and buy directly from farmers!!

I still have so much stuff to figure out! Like how do you know if a business is ethical in each area? Right now I get most of my info from the LA Times and the BBC, and I'm sure they are not totally accurate or even ethical themselves. So what's a person to do?