Comforts

A thought just struck me; a consideration as I was drinking my third morning coffee and remembered a brief part of a charitable website. Where do the grains for this delightful drink come from? Who harvests them? When it says 'Made in China' on my jeans, who in China do you suppose made them? Curious, isn't it? Is everything in the West made elsewhere? And do those who work and labour to make these comforts received fairly what is rightfully theirs? So I guess, in other words, what is the true price of comfort? Questions. Just questions.

I recall last year, in RE class, part of our coursework was a case study on the unfair payment of Nike production-line workers. Such expensive shoes yet so cheap to make for the company. Makes me wonder, how many of the grand extravagant commodities that enter the West are actually made fairly? 

It seems kinda hypocritical for me to say that it's unfair when I am the average consumer; blissfully ignorant of where these commodities come from and who actually makes them. Afterall, it's not the multi-billion dollar companies doing the work, but the production-line workers who get paid a miserable few dollars or cents for a day's effort. 

Ignorance is bliss because it means that you don't have to do anything about it. But once you consider the possibility- you must act in some way. I guess one way is to investigate - find out who is really doing the work. Another way is to boycott the corporate giants that drive this injustice. 

Once again, I am kinda being hypocritical here, since I, a Westerner, enjoy the comforts of such commodities without realising, perhaps even ignoring, where they came from and how they came to arrive on my shelf. But now, that I consider the possibility of this social injustice, I can't be ignorant of it any longer- I have to act on what I know; the question remains is of course, how?